THE 



UNIVEKSALIAD; 

O R, 

CONFESSIONS OF UNIVEESALISM: 

| A POEM IN TWELVE CANTOS. 

TO WHICH ARE ADDED 

LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM: 

THEREIN THE SYSTEM IS EXPLAINED, AND ITS CHLEF ARGUMENTS 
CONSIDERED AND REFUTED. 

I BY ARTHUR CRIHFIELD. 



"But after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thy- 
self wrath against the day of wrath."— Paul. 

"Who, being past feeling, have given themselves over * * * to work 
all uncleanness with greediness."-— Paul. 



CINCINNATI: 
PUBLISHED BY E. SHEPARD, 

COLUMBIA STREET, 
SOLD BY S. W. LEONARD, LOUISVILLE, AND 
A, D. FILLMORE, CINCINNATI. 




At 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1 848, 

BY SILAS W. LEONARD, 
In the Clerk's office of the District Court of Kentucky. 



Cincinnati: 

STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BT 

E. SHEPAUD, 
Columbia Street. 



j 



PREFACE. 



Of late years, the controversy between Christians 
and that sect of unbelievers styled Universalists, has 
been carried on with considerable spirit and violence : 
so much so, that many oral discussions have been held 
among the people, and divers volumes, on both sides, 
have been published. And, while some of both parties, 
are still harnessed for the war, and ready to make battle 
at any time, some good people have expressed the opin- 
ion that too much importance has been given to the sub- 
ject — greatly more, indeed, than its merits demand, or 
than the public require. The opinion, possibly, may be 
well founded, but it is certain, in a general view, that those 
who entertain it, have paid but partial attention to the 
subject of Universalisin, and are unacquainted with the 
art and tact with which its advocates attempt to sustain 
it. My own opinion is, that too much care cannot be 
bestowed in this direction, in order to guard the faithful 
and weak by all the best means in our power. The hu- 
man mind is so constituted, that it cannot believe an ab- 
surdity, however venerable from age, or however popular 
from superstition ; and, being well convinced that the re- 
ligion of Universalists is supremely absurd, it is at once 
honorable and consistent in me to make that absurdity 
appear, by the feeble means in my possession. If an 
apology be needed, such it is, for the publication of an- 
other volume on the subject of Universalism — some ac- 
count of which I will now present. 

Some time in the autumn of 1847, by what may be 
regarded as a mere accident, my attention was called 
afresh to a consideration of some of the arguments in 
support of Universalism. Being, at that time, engaged 



1? 



PREFACE. 



in conducting a religious periodical, I determined to say 
something by way of exposing that (as I believed) un- 
reasonable and unscriptural dogma ; which I did. Hence, 
the appearance of the several pieces on the " God of Uni- 
versalism," in the " Christian Journal and Union." But, 
merely for the sake of variety among the pieces on the 
subject, I was seated one day in order to compose some 
five or six stanzas ; but, when I had finished the num- 
ber proposed, I found that I was fully out at sea, and 
that I could not well publish anything without publish- 
ing that to which my labors must swell — a book. Hav- 
ing finished one canto, the way was opened for another, 
and so on, till I had finished twelve. The theme was 
fruitful in its way. As for the merits of the whole per- 
formance, if there be any, the public at last will speak, 
but not from the impulses of those whose pride is wound- 
ed, or from the dispraise of interested editors and self- 
appointed critics, who never can see merit anywhere ex- 
cept in themselves, or in those who volunteer to become 
their echoes. To purchase praise from the secular press, 
would be an adventure which, however frequently done, 
would require more brass than I have on cheek or in 
coffer : and to expect it from those who have appointed 
themselves as censors of the literature of religion, in 
that department where it has been my lot to labor, is a 
matter which recent indications admonish me is vain. 
There is, then, but the one way to act in reference to the 
fate of the little volume now in your hand, reader — to 
let it go upon what merit it may have in the estimation 
of the public. I think I can bear the sneers of the ig- 
norant, the contempt of the envious, and the coolness of 
pretended friends. I do not know that I desire their 
praise, and certainly I do not very much dread their 
frowns. I have, indeed, some reason to anticipate the 
latter; for when, in 1847, seven cantos of the Univer- 
saliad were published, they met with an ungracious re- 



PREFACE. 



7 



ception in certain quarters, where, if read, they might 
have been of service. It will not be strange, if the 
whole volume should now come in for a double share of 
similar opprobrium. Should this be the case, happily 
the book is armed with a sting, which will be felt in pro- 
portion as it is provoked by the critics in question. 

The plan of this poem is plain and easily apprehended. 
A Universalist clergyman, in the main apparently hon- 
est and ingenuous, is represented as calling a popular 
audience around him, and as discoursing to the believers 
on the several topics of which his system of doctrine is 
composed. Every difficulty he finds in his way is can- 
didly acknowledged and confessed. He argues, or rath- 
er asserts, the case at large, and then puts forth such 
objections as appear in his way. Thus he goes on, till 
the end of the eighth canto. In the ninth canto, we re- 
gard him more as a writer than a speaker : he here aims 
to supply such omissions as had been discovered in the 
preceding cantos. In the tenth, he proceeds to give an 
account of the several discussions in which, at various 
times, he had been engaged. He meets a Methodist cir- 
cuit-rider, Luther Lee. He next meets a Presbyterian 
divine. Finally, he meets some nameless orator, whom 
he first saw in the water, baptizing ; and by this man he 
is so terrified, that he flies in much haste to a place of 
concealment. The eleventh canto is a letter which he 
writes by way of reprisal, to the man who had so terri- 
fied him a short time before, at the water. There are 
some serious, and some rather comical, things in this 
canto. The twelfth canto contains the answer of the 
water-man to said letter, and is also designed to show 
clearly and fully the practical tendency of the doctrine 
of Universalism, by the presentation of a list of exam- 
ples. Such is the plan, and such the substance of the 
Universaliad. 

Respecting the spirit and style of the poem, could I 



PREFACE. 



be indulged, I would make a remark or two. And here 
I disguise it not, that I have aimed at a "burlesque 
throughout. I am sensible that Universalists have call- 
ed it a low and vulgar poem. Others, who ought to , I 
know better, have seemed, in a few instances, to coincide 
in so worthless a judgment. I challenge all men to pro- i 
duce a vulgar or coarse line from it. But, it may be | 
well to observe, that words sometimes seem to contract | | 
a stain from the subjects about which we employ them. 
This is the case with Universalism. It is a blind, head- j 
long, and stupid affair ; and while our hero is telling j 
his tale, he must be allowed to do it in his own way, and 
according to the genius of his own system. This will, 
and must, give an air of levity to sundry of his speeches. 
Were it otherwise, the poem could not be, as it now is, 
a transcript, faithful and true, of the features of Univer- \ 
salism. Poetry, in part, is defined as a picture to the 
lift, or that medium through which we see things as they 
are. And I venture the assertion, that, whenever we 
see Universalism as it is, we see that which is supremely 
ridiculous— a strange commingling of things grave and 
ludicrous, solemn and laughable, sacred and profane. I 
am sensible that it is a nice point to handle so depraved 
a subject, without being liable to the charge of levity, or I 
even of vulgarity. In operations of this kind, it is neces- I 
sary not only to use the most delicate forceps, or whatever I 
instrument the contact requires, but to use it in the 
most skillful manner, lest some of the virus or corrup- I 
tion elicited from the subject defile the person of the 
operator. 

It will be a mistake, in most readers, if they suppose 
they can understand this poem at once. I find that 
some of my cherished friends have partially misunder- 
stood it. The unpracticed reader will find much diffi- 
culty in reading it, and, perhaps, more still in knowing 
why certain words were employed in preference to oth- 



PREFACE. 



vii 



ers, or why certain rhymes were adopted which border 
on the ridiculous. In reference to all which, I would 
say, I have purposed to do all as you find it — of choice 
I have used such expressions and rhymes. In my judg- 
ment, the burlesque could have been done in no other 
style so well. The words, the feet, the rhyme, the sub- 
ject, are all homogeneous, or should be so ; and, hence, 
the reader, if he can enter into the spirit of this poem, 
will find, if I mistake not, a constant pleasure through- 
out, at the expense of a doctrine which he will intuitive- 
ly see is fake and impious. May I hope, then, that 
the reader will not judge hastily, or before a thorough 
and careful perusal. It is known to the public that I 
have written much on the subject of Universalisni — that 
I have had many discussions with the principal men on 
that side in this country — and that I am held in abomina- 
tion by them on account of my labors in this depart- 
ment : but, if the reader will pardon an apparent ego- 
tism (for necessity puts it upon me to speak of myself 
is this preface), I must give it as my candid judgment, 
that this poem is the best that I have produced on the 
subject. I have aimed it as a home-thrust into the vi- 
tals of the error ; and if I have missed the mark, I am 
more deceived than I supposed I could be. This re- 
mark is made for the purpose of calling public attention 
to this production. While I think the poem may do 
great good, I desire it to have a fair trial, by being read 
by the intelligent. 

In the presence of some readers, perhaps, an apology 
may be due for the singular measure adopted in the 
present case. I confess that a measure more easily read 
might have been selected, and one by which the author's 
meaning could have been more readily gathered : but, in 
that case, two important objects would have been lost — 
the originality which was supposed to be essential under 
all the circumstances, and the facility afforded by this 



Vlll 



PREFACE, 



length of line, and its termination, of saying what was 
intended in such a way as would cut with the most ef- 
fective edge. Experience has taught me, that alternate 
lines, of twelve and eleven syllables, are most happily 
adapted to the special purposes of the Universaliad, and, 
perhaps, also to satire in general. The first line ending 
with a short syllable, and the next with a long one, &c, 
gives wide scope for rhymes, if these be an object, so 
that any description may be had, or any sentiment ex- 
pressed, at the pleasure of him who is favored by the 
muses. If, then, the reader will look into this subject 
carefully, he will find, it is hoped, no cause of regret on 
account of the singular measure adopted in the poem be- 
fore him. 

Byron once said of himself, "I love rhymes." They 
are by no means essential to poetry — they are often ob- 
structions and burthens to it : nevertheless, if they can 
be used without seeming to be sought, or without ex- 
pressing less or more than the sentiment intended, they 
become ornaments, and should be used. I confess my- 
self fond of them. They are used, on all occasions, 
throughout the following poem. In some instances they 
may appear somewhat forced or unnatural — as when a 
word is divided at the end of a line — but in all those 
places I sought to have it so, rather than otherwise, for 
the sake of the subject then in thought. I am aware 
that some critics have condemned this practice ; but I 
maintain that it is justifiable at certain times. Far the 
greatest number of the critics have neither better taste 
nor judgment than the authors they affect" to review. 
It is sometimes the case, that one man elevates himself 
into a judge or censor of the productions of all other 
men ; and, unhappily, it is not unfrequently the case, 
that a whole community gives up to him both conscience 
and judgment ; while, at the same time, he may be nei- 
ther poet nor philosopher — -may not be as deserving as 



PREFACE. 



others wholly unknown to fame. For one, I will not be 
hampered by the rules of a dull lexicographer, or a more 
dull editor, who seeks little else beside the whistling of 
a name — to whom accident or fortune has given an 
importance which might as well have been given to 
others. 

What reception this work will find among Universal- 
ists, is not hard to divine. Already the cry of misrej)re- 
sentation is heard. But the public will know how to ap- 
preciate this species of trickery : and I desire herein and 
hereby, to issue a challenge to the whole clerical corps of 
TJniversalists, on this wise — I propose to prove, from any 
stanza they may select from this poem, that their doctrine 
is not misrepresented in it, but that it is truly and fairly 
expressed and contains their sentiment. We dare them, 
then, to select what they deem the worst parts of the pro- 
duction and make the experiment. If they do not be- 
lieve what this poem confesses as their faith, then they 
are not Universalists, that is all. Until some of them 
shall accept this challenge, let us hear no more of misrep- 
resentation. Universalism is here described as I under- 
stand it ; but that I understand it clearly and fully I 
have no more doubt than that there is such a thing in 
the land. And if I know any thing of my own heart, I 
have no wish to misrepresent it. But the thing is, as it 
here appears, and the common sense of mankind is 
bound to confess it so. 

The Universaliad is designed to do good to the cause 
of general Christianity — it is anti-sectarian throughout, 
and is dedicated to all persons, everywhere, who love the 
truth, and work righteousness. Much care and pains 
have been expended in getting it up. It is now com- 
pleted and stereotyped, so that the enterprising publish- 
er, Mr. Silas W. Leonard, will bring it profusely before 
the public. He must sell, of this book, some forty or 
fifty thousand copies in a few years. May truth triumph 



s. 



PREFACE. 



over error, and may righteousness prevail over ignorance 
and superstition ! 

Respecting the " Lectures on Universalism," that 
follow, and are bound with, this volume, it may be well 
to remark : they were published periodically in the years 
1843 and 1844, all except the eighth Lecture in this se- 
ries, which was published in 1847, in the "Christian 
J ournal and Union." The whole is now revised and cor- 
rected, and submitted to the candid and enlightened 
public. ARTHUR CRIHFXELD. 

Covington, Ky., July, 1849, 



THE 



UNIVERSALIAD. 

CANTO L 

" 1 own there are difficult things, and can't fix 'em, 

And partialist writers have made them full strong— 
The best I can do is to jumble and mix 'em, 

And then go ahead and proceed with my song." 

Canto I, 51. 



THE ARGUMENT. 



The hero of the poem is a Universalist clergyman, who is at once 
introduced and described. His creed is summarily put down. 
The means by which he rose to eminence. He findeth occasion 
to publish his doctrine verbally to the world: he posteth up a 
hand-bill : he appeareth in the crowd : he takcth his position in 
a bar-room, before the decanters; commenceth his discourse; 
defineth his position; entereth into a long detail of hell and 
damnation; defineth what hell is, in the view of Universalists ; 
giveth an account of his mission to hell ; visiteth a ball in those 
regions; goeth a day's travel further into hell; visiteth the pal- 
ace of the devil, and is treated kindly ; witnesseth a convention 
of Whigs and Democrats; joineth a wedding party; describeth 
the banking institutions of hell ; beholdeth the internal improve- 
ments of the place; attendeth meeting, and preacheth in hell; 
seeth many physicians and lawyers there, with others ; findeth 
and defineth the fire and worm of hell ; describeth the location 
and boundaries of hell ; asserteth the pharmacy of the place, 
and the therapeutic agents; telleth how it acts as a purgatory; 
and, having proceeded thus far, he confesseth the difficulties in 
the way of his doctrine. Unable to satisfy his own mind, he 
proposeth and attempteth to satisfy others, but plungeth into 
deeper difficulties, and endeth his speech by saying, that, if sal- 
vation be not in one way, it is in another, but is uncertain 
which. 



THE 

UNI VEESALIAD. 



CANTO I. 

A man there once liv'd, but to tell in what nation, 

Or when he was born, or his family name, 
Is nought to the Muses : 'tis but his vocation 

I sing, and commit it forever to fame ! 
I sing not of monarchs, or tyrants, or heros, 

Or dynasties rising, or nations that fall ; 
I leave tyrants, despots, Caligulas, Neros, 

For one humble wight that eclipseth them all. 

II. 

He is not a traveler, like famous Don J uan, 

Or knight, like Don Quixotte, to Dulcinea sworn, 
Or musing Childe Harold ; in short, he 's a new one, 

And runs a new race since the day he was born. 
A man of one thought, of one single idea, 

That darkness is light, good is evil, short long, 
The present is future, sweet bitter — must be a 

Fit subject to live in the annals of song. 



14 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



III. 

His one lone conception was purely religious. 

His creed was his own, and one article in % 
His knowledge was lean, but his zeal was prodigious, 

Of brass he'd enough for the government mint. 
What nation he left when he came to Columbia, 

Or whence came his creed, virtuosos may tell ; 
It sprang, if we credit the archives of some, by a 

Dark postern of earth which connecteth with hell. 

IV. 

But that soundeth harsh, in the ear of good breeding, 

And charity, hearing it, taketh offense : 
The way his creed came, to the best of my reading, 

Is this — 'tis the absence of all common sense : 
For, who can imagine that man of a sane mind, 

Who fancies the Scriptures do plainly express 
That sinners are saved without faith ? 'Tis a vain mind 

If not indeed mad — and can scarcely be less. 

V. 

The Bible J s a book which contains the religion 

Of all pious people — and thus much he knew — 
And read it for matter to span out a bridge on, 

Or over hell future, to keep it from view. 
Besides, oft he read in the " Star" and the " Trumpet,"* 

To gather their spirit and drink of their wit- 
To learn what is orthodox, and how to thump it, 

And bite at good men so as not to be bit. 



* Universalist periodicals. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



L5 



VI. 

The man was industrious in riding to peddle, 

To buyers more simple and vain than himself, 
The fabrics on hand, or to wrangle and meddle 

With other men's creeds ; but he did it for pelf : 
For, tho' he believ'd all are on the sure highway 

That leadeth to glory, without any doubt, [way," 
He sputter'd and froth'd, crying, " Friends, come my 

To joust their opinions, and scatter them out. 



VII. 

If any he found of the orthodox lukewarm, 

Or under the censure of elders in charge, 
He'd belch like a bellows, or rather would puke warm, 

The bile of dissension, and fling it at large. 
And thus, from the several orthodox parties, 

He gather' d backsliders, and form'd them a clan, 
Then, triumphing, uttered, " Come on, now, my hearties. 

The rear of the army, henceforth, is the van ! 



vIII. [blackguard, 
"Why may they not heav'nward, the drunkard and 

Drive on at full speed till they come to the boon — 
Like men who, in stages and rail-ears, ride backward, 

And go just as fast, and get home just as soon % 
Our fate is a rail- way ; but what we call votives, 

As faith, hope, and love, are in destiny vain, 
For hell and damnation are life's locomotives, 
. That press on the track and that draw on the train. 



16 



THE UNIVERSALlAD. 



IX. 

" I 've seen, on the steam-boat or rail-car, the trav'ler 
Not only sit backward, but, riding, walk back, 

And yet go ahead, maugre reas'ner or cav'ler, 
Nor miss, by his retrograde motion, the track. 

From cars under speed, if men fall, we can't catch 'em 
But, from heaven's car, they can't fall fully out, 

For there 's still below them an engine to snatch 'em, 

And jerk them along to the end of the route." 

X. 

'Twas thus he acquired his trade pretty fully 

By practicing oft in his own neighborhood, 
And rose, by degrees, a redoubtable bully, 

And stood up, at last, where his fathers had stood. 
'Tis thus with all great men — by little and little 

They rise from the darkness and peer into day ; 
They dig down the mountains, or patiently whittle 

The tallest oaks down that obtrude in their way. 

XL 

Full often he pray'd that he might opportunely 

Find some fit occasion t' unburthen his mind 
Before the whole world — and it chanc'd him full soonly. 

It came at his call, and may thus be defin'd : 
The crowd had assembled to hold an election, 

Or put a fifth wheel to the chariot of state ; 
And when they had done it — or found, by inspection, 

What man of their choice was so happy and great — 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



17 



XII. 

At all streets and corners a poster flam'd like a 

Great show-bill for circus, whose black gothic head 
Stood out on the sheet in its fifty-line pica ; 

And thus, as for substance, the document read : 
K Good news to the world, to the good and the evil ! 

Come, come to my meeting to hail the great light ! 
I'll preach about hell, and will prove that the devil 

Is dying, or dead — and his fun'ral to-night !" 

XIII. 

The hand-bill produced a prodigious excitement — 

The sober turn'd out from so novel a case, [meant, 
And all were most anxious to know what the light 

And fools, for a frolic, throng' d out to the place. 
At first there was doubt, and perplex'ty for room 

To hold such a crowd, all intention to hear ; 
At last a kind landlord cried, " Come to my bar-room — 

A room that is spacious, commodious, and clear. 33 

XIV. 

The lawyers and doctors, and dandies, and planters, 

And loafers and spongers — a crowd was of them ; 
He stood in the bar, just before the decanters, 

And was the bar -keeper pro re and pro tern. 
'Gainst orthodox people he rav'd, and he thump'd 'em, 

For being so torvous and tight in their way ; 
From off a small box, his pro tern ramaumptum,* 

He utter' d what follows, stenographers say: 



* The name of the Mormon pulpit. 



18 THE UNIVERSALIAD. 

XV. 

" Draw near, ye profane, all ye loafers and muckers, 

I've something to tell which I've cater' d for you; 
Ye murderers, liars, ye thieves and grog-suckers, 

Rejoice in the doctrine of £ father Ballou !' 
Go on, ye disciples of mammon and whisky, 

Go on, or stay back, or do nothing at all; 
Your heaven is sure, and will open by this key — 

The worst are as safe as saint Peter or Paul ! 

XVI. 

" I tell you, my friends, it is all a delusion 

That partialists dream of — a hell that shall come ; 
No hell is much worse, or a greater confusion, 

Than what gurgles out of a bottle of rum. 
The J ews' hell went out in the valley of Hinnom, 

And, as for the Gentiles, 'tis plain they have none, 
Except the small portable one they have in 'em 

Whenever they sin — but to feel it is fun ! 

XVII. 

"As much has been said, both of hell and damnation, 
By orthodox preachers, who always are wrong, 

I'll give you a sketch of my own observation, 
And set the thing right at the start of my song: 

Well, hell is not rank'd with the primary planets, 
Nor yet with the moons, their attendants oblate ; 

Long since the creation it grew, and began its 
' Career — not a world nor an age, but a state. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 19 

XVIII. 

% ' But 'tis not a state in the sense of Kentucky, 

Virginia, Ohio, Missouri, or Maine, 
Nor yet (and for man that provision is lucky) 

A state beyond time in the regions of pain. 
Hell cleaves to the earth, but our circles and angles, 

Our latitude, longitude, set it not forth ; 
It dwells in all zones, in all countries, and wrangles 

And breeds its confusion from south to the north. 

XIX. 

"In short, it is this on£ compris'd within that one, 

But this one is moral, political that ; 
This has no dimensions, but that is a flat one, 

Described in an atlas, or drawn on a plat. 
To be, then, in hell, is to be in Virginia, 

Kentucky, Ohio, or old Illinois, 
Or Greenland, Borneo, Kamtschatka, or Guinea, 

Or wherever sin our affections employs. 

XX. 

" To be sent to hell need not very much vex us, 

Or break down our spirits by wasting despair; 
"We can pay the debt in Missouri or Texas, 

Or go to New England, or stay where we are. 
When we swallow hell, hell doth open and swallow 

Our spirits, then weldeth her chain to our link : 
Two black-snakes once met near their den, in a hollow, 

And swallow'd each other and coil'd to a kink. 



20 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



XXI. 

u But figures and tropes for the present omitting, 

As not the best suited to tell what I would, 
I charter a diction more simple and fitting 

To sing about hell, and to be understood. 
We all go to hell by our simple transgressions, 

And all guilt is hell, be it found where it may ; 
Ev'n saints are in hell, till they make their confessions, 

Whenever, as sheep, they have wander' d astray. 

XXII, 

" The hell that there is, indeed, all there is of it, 

I reckon somewhat like an ill, scolding wife, 
A tariff on joy, to be paid as a profit 

Hereafter, but binds us and damns us for life: 
We cannot, in life, get a bill of divorcement, 

And still the old termagant plieth her ways ; 
The writ of ejectment, and act of enforcement, 

Will send her adrift at the end of our days. 

XXIII. 

" Hell, then, is on earth — co-extends with her surface, 

Spreads out with her seas, and begirts every clime ; 
J Tis not high in air, nor below her superfice, 

But stays where men stay, and is bounded by time. 
Then, if you'd see hell in its ugliest phazes, 

To gain such a sight you have nothing to do 
But visit the world in its wickedest places, 

And hell and the devil will rise to your view. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



XXIV. 

* I once went to hell — do you think I was not there ? — 

And found how the orthodox truths misapply : 
For 'tis rather chilly than sultry and hot there— 

I've known it to freeze in the month of July ! [tains, 
And, there, there are plains, there are dells, there are moun- 

And groves of sweet sylvan delights all around — 
And cascades leap down from perennial fountains, 

And laughter and mirth, in most circles, abound. 

XXV. 

" I went to a ball, and, till then, 'twas a riddle 

'Bout weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth ; 
They do it in hell by a dance to the fiddle — 

The dancers, in pairs, intervolv'd like a wreath. 
An old toothless negro did finger and thumb it 

To fling off the tunes, the delight of the ear ; 
But, having no teeth, he was fated to gum it, 

The which he did gladly, absorbing his cheer. 

XXVI. 

" But, thinking perchance I had seen but the frontier 

Of hell, and that things were much worse further in 
(I'd scarce known a pain, or a grumble or grunt here, 

Among all the numberless damn'd I had seen), 
I mounted a car of destruction, and hied me 

Far on toward the center, with speed of the wind, 
A summer-day's journey most fully supplied me 

With all that I sought, or desired to find. 



22 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



XXVII. 

" Whilom, much I fear'd both of hell and the devil. 

To see it, or him, was unspeakably loath ; 
But when with the world I found hell on a level, 

I made it my homestead, familiar with both. 
I found even Satan not always in malice — - 

Full often polite is the prince of the air — 
For, once on a visit, on en t' ring his palace, 

He rose most politely and gave me his chair ! 

XXVIII. 

" In hell they hold balls, and conventions, and parties — 

Discourse of religion and high politics, 
The science of warfare, and what the best art is 

Of public defense, or the tariff to fix. 
I've seen Whigs, in hell-fire, convoke their conventions, 

And pass resolutions in favor of Clay ; 
And Democrats slyly defeat their intentions, 

Or blow them, in clouds of confusion, away. 

XXIX. 

" They marry in hell : and the happiest wedding 

I ever attended, or ever shall find, 
Was that of Miss Pindar to Chancellor Hedding, 

The chief of his tribe, and the best of his kind. 
We fiddl'd, we frolic'd, we play'd and we caper'd, 

We drank, we carous'd, we sang ditties of fun, 
All night — in the morning we sober'd, and taper'd 

The spree to an end with the rise of the sun. 



THE UNIVERSAL! AD. 



23 



XXX. 

tt The people who say so, are hugely mistaken, 

That hell is all dark, without one ray of light : 
The citizens sleep, and, refresh'd, they awaken, 

Repair to their labors, and end thern at night. 
'Tis true, some are sick, others suffer from lewdness. 

And all are perplex' d, more or less with their cares ; 
But pleasure reigns here, with amusement and shrewdness, 

And merchants still forward and dicker their wares. 

XXXI. 

u There 's money in hell : and the great institution 

Of banking confesseth its origin here ; 
Confess to the fact, and it gives a solution 

Of many strange things which in banking appear : 
Five dollars of one, by an act legislative, 

Are made, as by magic, for mammon to hold — 
Who wrests from th' Almighty the power creative, 

Then nothing is something, and rags turn to gold. 

XXXII. 

" In hell they've discovered the secret alchymic, 

In hell they have found the philosopher's stone, 
And, by it, pervert all creation, or mimic 

Th' Almighty himself, when he lets them alone. 
Already the march of their genius is fright' ning, 

And falls little short of invincible gods ; [ning, 
They print by steam engines, make post-boys of light- 

And drive iron horses thro' hell on their roads. 



24 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



XXXIII. 

" There 's preaching in hell : and the happiest sermon 

In all my whole life I deliver' d, was there. 
To masses of hell's most intractable vermin. 

While present sat Satan, the prince of the air. 
The preaching was eloquent, piercing and fervent, 

And popular, too, as the devil allow' d ; 
For, when I had ended, '-Well done, faithful servant. 

Said he, for, all hollow, Vm beat in this crowd P 

XXXIV. 

" In hell are physicians by scores — there are lawyers 

Almost to the tune of the causes they plead ; 
The high and the low, the employ'd and employers, 

The rich and the poor, and the bond and the freed. 
I could sing the rest, but I pray a postponement 

Till some fit occasion shall offer by 'nd bye ; 
All these are in hell to work out their atonement, 

And thousands are there who can never tell why. 

XXXV. 

a While trav'ling in hell, to effect explorations, 

Methought for the fire and the worm I would look ; 
I found them at last, but they need explications 

To make them conform and quadrate to the Book : 
Hell-fires are extinct when life's natural term dies, 

And all condemnation is overpast then ; 
And then, too, it is, that the undying worm dies, 

Which seldom lives longer than three score and ten. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



25 



XXXVI. 

"And thus having said, having laid down my premise. 

To know the conclusion is all that you need ; 
But. feeling unwell of a cold, and the phlegm is 

So troublesome now, I am loth to proceed : 
O-oh ! hooh ! — but I must now at last put the case on 

The stand of debate, notwithstanding my cold, 
Lest men in suspicion suppose me a Mason, 

And deem that a secret which ought to be told. 

XXXVII. 

"As I've been in hell and, hence, know all about it, 

All orders for knowledge I gladly supply ; 
There 's no way to heaven that leads you without it — 

Plumb thro' it you dive to the glory on high ! 
In heaven's geography, hell is located 

To bind upon bliss — as two kingdoms they join — 
By time's narrow river they stand separated, 

And life's feeble thread is the boundary line. 

XXXVIII. 
" But hell is a laver or churn pharmaceutic, 

And every ingredient to cleanse us is there ; 
All agents most fit in the scheme therapeutic 

In all the best pow'r of proportions appear : 
Then souls in their guilt, huddled in for purgation, 

Are churn' d up and down, the reward of their sin — 
Or roll'd round and round in this tub of damnation, 

And tumbled and mumbled and fumbled till clean. 



26 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



XXXIX. 

" The ladies in hell are of exquisite muscles- 
There fairest belles flutter in finest brocade, [ties — 

In corsets compressed, and hung round with their bus- 
In hell both the corset and bustle were made. 

Thus punish' d for sin, by the stringence of corset, 
The fair dupes of fashion confess their bad taste ; 

They fight against nature, but aiming to force it, 
Damnation coils round them, with hell at the waist. 

XL. 

"And now having given in brief a true hist'ry 

Of matters and things in the regions of hell, 
I come to confess what to me is a myst'ry — • 

That thousands should choose in damnation to dwell. 
If here they are suff 'ring to make restitution,, 

Or what they deserve for their debts or their sin, 
3 Tis strange, that of all that are suff 'ring, so few shun 

The debt of damnation, but plunge deeper in ! 

XLL 

" On earth, among men, when the laws are insulted, 

The penalty falls in proportionate pain ; 
And culprits, by judge or by jury once mulcted, 

Feel fines, costs and prisons run cross to the grain. 
3 Tis not so in hell : when a sin is committed, 

We neither our money nor liberty lose ; 
Again we commit it, again 'tis repeated, 

The penalty still is the thing that we choose, 



I 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



27 



XLII. 

"I notic'd in hell, when I went on my mission, 

I notic'd, I say — and I thought it was queer— 
The hooks of damnation with numberless fish on, 

Yet those very fishes rejoic'd to be there ! 
For loving one sin they were damn'd still to love it, 

For practicing two, to rejoice in a third, 
And thus on the scale, if to hundreds we move it, 

Damnation slides forward, and ends in — a word. 

XLIIL 

" There 's much yet to sing of both hell and the devil, 

To ransom the pledge that I gave, I allow, 
Of what Satan is, and how rose moral evil, 

And other great themes — but I can't sing them now: 
I'll sing them hereafter, but must study some for 't, 

In order with honor to do 't as I would — 
Meanwhile, I will dribble a morsel of comfort 

To ev'ry believer that 's here, and conclude. 

XLIV. 

u Carousals and lech'ries, and rites bacchanalian, 

Lie full in the road to the glory on high ; 
What comfort is this to the Universalian, 

As truth no more saves him, by faith, than a lie ! 
Live on, then, in sin — if you will you may quit it — • 

But no matter which, your salvation is sure ; 
In either event you shall not fail to hit it — 

The filthy shall gain it as well as the pure. 



28 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



XLV. 

" But here let me note, to avoid an objection, 

That all will be holy in fullness of time ; 
And such is the way we dispose of election, 

For none go to glory polluted in crime : 
But should you in sin all your lifetime continue, 

Rejoice in it, sinner — we say it once more, 
Should all the dark purpose of sin remain in you, 

In life and in death, still your heaven is sure. 

XLVI. 

" J Twas thus with the wicked who sank in the deluge, 

Full long before Noah they entered their rest ; 
O'er all the wide waters they chanted their hell-fuge. 

And, rising to glory, outwitted the best. 
And thus, too, Abihu, and Korah, and Dathan, 

Sunk up into heaven along with their train, 
While such saints as Moses, and David, and Nathan, 

Were doom'd, for less sin, in their hells to remain. 

XLVIL 

" What harvests of glory from Sodom, Gomorrah, 

And other vile cities, arose to the Lord, 
When blue flames of brimstone and pitch were sent for a 

Sure means to exalt them up to their reward ! 
And so at old Salem, all those unbelievers 

Who murder' d the Lord and rejected his cause, 
False christs and false prophets, and all those deceivers, 

Were shipp'd off to heaven, and gain'd its applause. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



29 



XL VIII. 

"If such can be sav'd, what 's the use of despairing 

Of all fornicators and murderers here? 
If old brother Judas in glory is sharing 

Its bliss, what have other and worse men to fear? 
'Tis true, by a slip-knot, he made the adventure, 

While out gush'd his bowels thro' pressure of sin ; 
But that was the way he took up his indenture, 

And now is as free as the best could have been. 

XLIX. 

" You need not have faith here, or any repentance, 

You '11 do well without them the moment you die ; 
The same are the glories of all that are sent hence, 

Believing or infidel, good, bad — and why? 
God over your graves will erect his great windlass, 

And send down to you the firm tug of his pow'r, 
And wind you to glory, when no one shall find less 

Than heaven immortal in less than an hour ! 

L. 

"Some doubt broodeth over the case of the spirit, 

When death hath dismiss'd it to regions unknown — 
If straight it departs its reward to inherit, 

Or sleepeth in death till the trumpet is blown : 
For if, as I've sung, it has gone to perfection, 

And dazzles in light in the regions of bliss. 
How then can I fix it, that the resurrection 

Will purge those for that world who miss'd it in this? 



30 



THE TJNIVERSALIAD. 



LI. 

" I own these are difficult tilings, and can't fix 'em, 

And partialist writers have made them full strong — 
The best I can do is to jumble and mix 'em, 

And then go ahead and proceed with my song. 
If the resurrection, to souls out of bodies 

In guilt, is appointed to purge them from sin, 
Then hell is post mortem at last— and how odd is 

Th' unflinching dilemma I find myself in ! 

LII. 

" But yet, after all, should this latter fact happen, 

That those corrupt dead are not purified yet, 
You must not suppose that our scheme has a gap in, 

And then, like the partialists, grumble and fret : 
No, no ! if at death, or the moment they drop in 

The grave, they are not purified from their sin, 
In the resurrection they '11 rise up and pop in- 

To heaven, all sanctified, holy and clean. 

LIIL 

"And now, my dear friends, every sister and brother, 

'Tis one of these two ways most surely, I know; 
If 'tis not in one way, why then 'tis in t' other — 

By one or the other to glory we'll go ! 
We'll now be dismissed : may you honor and cherish 

The word of salvation so graciously giv'n ; 
If not, you shall linger in darkness, and perish, 

And die in your sins, and be turn'd into — heav'n ! " 



THE 

UNIVERSALIAD. 



CANTO II. 

£ God made all diseases in making old Adam, 
And set them to gnawing the vitals of men : 
Then death grinn'd a laugh, for he knew that he had 'era 
By laws of their nature, and then — grinn'd again I" 

Canto II, 62. 



THE AKGUMENT. 



The hero appeareth again in his oratorio; complaineth of the man- 
ner in which Universalism hath recently been handled; lament- 
eth over the cowardice of Universalist clergymen ; confesseth 
how they act when hard pressed by argument; then resumeth 
his confessions. He telleth how death and hell came among 
mankind ; that, in making Adam out of the dust, every disease 
was made in, or concreated with, him ; that God made deaih 
and hell in making Adam and Eve ; that, as God made all things, 
and pronounced them good, the original diseases were good — the 
devil, as a part of man, was good, and hell was good in its way. 
While Job expressly denieth afflictions to arise from the ground, 
our hero opposeth his philosophy to Job's doctrine. 

His next argument is deduced from the Garden of Eden, which, 
with its trees, rivers, &c, he affirmeth to be a figure of Rheto- 
ric. A general description of primitive tropes is here given, and 
he affirmeth that they were not only much larger originally than 
now, but that they admitted (a thing not pretended at present) 
of geographical and geometrical admeasurement. He then de- 
fineth the kind of death Adam suffered as the penalty of law, 
when it appears that the penalty of one sin is the guilt of the 
same, or of another, or that the penalty of the law and break- 
ing it, are the same thing. He taketh the position that moral 
evil arose from natural, and that of course Adam and Eve sinned 
because they became sick — Eve first, because of her greater 
frailty, and Adam afterward. He exculpateth the devil of 
all blame for the sin of the world. The audience dismissed. 



THE 

U NITER SAL I AD; 



CANTO II. 

"My saint John, awake," and begone melancholy, 

Said Pope, and his patron awoke on the spot ; 
So waketh my hero, so flies to shoot folly, 

So flieth to shoot it, alas, but is shot ! 
Permitting one week his first song to pass over 

(That week he conceiv'd with great labor of brain), 
He call'd out his friends by the hand-bill manoeuvre, 

And from ramaumptum address' d them again. 

LV. 

Full muddy the streets, and the air insalubrious, 

The night was all dark as the song to be sung ; 
That song he dol'd out in a strain most lugubrious, 

But cheerfulness grew with his power of lung. 
Be hence, in the annals of song, a new era, 

In conscience, in reason, in God and in man ; 
Be all things inverted, nor stop for a query 

If good should prove evil ! — and thus he began : 



84 



THE UNIVERSALIAB. 



LVL 

" I know that our doctrine, of late, has been handled 

In merciless modes, by unmerciful men ; 
What once was believ'd in, and fondled and dandled, 

Is crucified now by the tongue and the pen. 
But still it may yet live, and will live yet, if heal'd, 

Tho' bad, at the present, the prospect appears, 
In spite of Ben Watkins, Ben Franklin, and Crihfield, 

Who pluck' d out its eyes and protracted its ears. 

LVIL 

" How oft, when we thought we had made a firm plexus 

Of nerves syllogistic our cause to sustain, 
Have these artful men, as on purpose to vex us, 

Dissected that plexus and made it all plain ! 
Sometime I have tho't, if there be a hell extra, 

Those men should fall into ? t, their sins to atone; 
But musing philanthropy, feeling her next ray 

Of light, was admonish' d to let them alone. 

LVIII. 

" Experience hath taught us, the more that we dabble 

With other men's creeds, or encounter their pow'rs, 
The worse for ourselves ; still we grumble and gabble^ 

For noise is the stay of this system of ours. 
When once we are foil'd, and confin'd to a corner, 

And find not a crevice through which to creep out. 
We raise a loud clamor and laugh, blow a horn or 

Brass bugle of lungs, and thus twaddle about. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



35 



LIX. 

6 \ Once much we were fani'd for debate and discussion^ 

And carried the contest all oyer the land ; 
We tilted and tournied, and, shouting, could rush on 

To carry the strongholds, bright falchion in hand. 
But ah ! we are fallen from heights where we tower 5 d— • 

Our flag all dishonor'd, our glory forgot; 
Each preacher is now little else than a coward, 

And flies, like the Mex'cans from Taylor and Scott ! 

LX, 

" But I have digress' d — there 's no use in complaining — 

We're in for the doctrine, and must make it out : 
Some points in dispute and in doubt are remaining, 

And these I have something to tell you about. 
I'll lay back my scheme upon Adam in Eden, 

And draw out a noose for the orthodox trains, 
When, doubtless, you'll say I have laid 'em a-bleedin'. 

Or hung them suspended to dangle in chains. 

LXI. 

"And, now, the great matters I haste to develop 

Will teach you some facts most important to know ; 
You'll see how it was first, and who set all hell ope, 

And gave death commission and kingdom below : 
We hold that God made Adam sin in the garden, 

Foreknowing the fact and decreeing the fall, 
And then would not grant him the least mite of pardon 3 

But whipt him and flogg'd him for being at all. 



36 



THE UNIVERSALXAD. 



LXIL 

" Let partialists tell you that death came by sinning— 

'Tis all a delusion, as now I will show; 
For death reign' d in man from the very beginning, 

And if you should doubt it, read ' father Ballou.' 
God made all diseases in making old Adam, 

And set them to knawing the vitals of men : 
Then death grinn'd a laugh, for he knew that he had 'em 

By laws of their nature, and then — grinn'd again ! 

LXIII. 

"When heaven and earth, with her valleys and moun tains. 

The beasts and the birds, and the tribes of the flood, 
And man and the trees, and the min'rals and fountains, 

Were made, God in wisdom acknowiedg'd them good. 
Good cholic, good gout, and most ex'lent sciatic, 

Good measles, good gravel, good shortness of breath ; 
Consumptions were good, with the twinges rheumatic, 

Good thousand diseases, the arrows of death ! 

LXIV. 

"As man rose from earth, so from man sprang diseases, 

Disease, concreated, is mix'd in the globe ; 
And dust turn'd to mankind, for so nature pleases, 

Breeds trouble, but this is repugnant to Job : 
For, suffering the sorrows of humankind double, 

He knew whence afflictions were made to abound, 
And patiently sung, £ Not from dust is my trouble, 

Nor did my afflictions grow out from the ground.' 



THE UNIVERSAL! AD, 



37 



LXV. 

u 'Tis true, at this doctrine the partialists snigger, 

And deem that a fable we argue as true, 
That Eden itself, with its trees, was a figure, 

And figures its rivers meandering through : 
If so (and they were so), the soil the man trod on, 

Itself, was a figure, and not solid ground ; 
And so were Assyria, Ethiopia, and Nod on 

The east side of Eden for many miles round. 

LXVI. 

" East, west, north and south, true, are terms geographic, 

But may we not fitly adjust them to tropes, 
As well as to cities and states, where men traflic, 

And mete them by inches as we measure ropes? 
The south-western line of a Proserpopea, 

The north-eastern sluice of Metonymy's flood, 
Or th } east side of Irony, surely would be a 

New thought, and as clear and transparent as mud. 

LXVII. 

" The rhet'ric of our days is dwarfish and runty, 

Compared with the old kind that Moses could use ; 
Our widest of tropes and our longest are bunty, 

As measur'd by those of Egyptians or Jews. 
A common-siz'd trope, such as Moses would count in 

The class of his best, as our fathers can tell, 
Could drink up a river, or swallow a mountain, 

And then have room left for a kingdom to dwell 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



LXVIII. 

" The slave-holder oft would get rid of his negroes. 

When they became lazy, or thievish, or dull. 
And we would most gladly dismiss a few figures 

That hamper our system, of which it is full. 
It was a great figure, that garden of Eden, 

Where rivers could head and the fountains could flow. 
That Adam and Eve could both sleep in and feed in, 

And trees of all species could flourish and grow. 

LXIX. 

"When Adam and Eve were consign'd to the figure 

To dress it, a short time they kept it full well ; 
But it prov'd a dead-fall, held up by a trigger, 

And Eve bit the apple, alas, and it fell ! 
In that day they died, or it was death's beginning, 

But death here, we mean, was a deadness in sin ; 
The penalty was, then, of sin, to keep sinning— 

We sin to atone for the sin we are in ! 

LXX. 

u God said to the man, and he said to the woman, 

4 The day ye transgress most assur'dly ye die F 
And, partialists tell us, on that day he slew man — 

But here they 're at fault, and I now tell you why : 
The death of the body, we know, did not happen 

For many long years after eating the fruit— 
The Deity meant, by their death, he would clap in 

Their souls under moral death, sin, should they do ? t. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



39 



LXXI. 

" To morally die, is to sin, I confess it, 

And Adam's death moral was sin and its shame ; 
But what 's my dilemma needs no wit to guess it, 

The sanction of law and its breach are the same ! 
Hence, God says- to Adam, to Eve, the beginner 

Of crime, as she listen' d to hear what he said— 
' The moment you sin, Eve, you will be a sinner, 

The moment you die, Eve, that moment you 're dead P 

LXXIL 

" To eat of the tree which the Lord interdicted, 

Was death — moral death— I acknowledge with pain ] 
The penalty, hence, that for sin was inflicted, 

Was naught but for that sin in sin to remain ! 
For, £ ye shall not eat] means, 1 ye shall not die mor'lly, 

And hence, if ye die, ye most surely shall die ; 
If ye sin, ye shall sin, and shall be in sin surely, 

The act of transgression the law's penalty P 

LXXIIL 

" The way of transgression is hard, saith the proverb 5 

And sophistry's ways are as hard as of crime — 
What meaning of noun is there now, or what of verb, 

But such as confoundeth and stulteth my rhyme? 
I've labor'd my brain to a woful wool-gath'ring, 

Till darkness and mist all its thinking betide; 
And strip all I've said of its tinsel and feath'ring, 

And then what is left but the sting of my pride ! 



40 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



LXXIV. 

"And now a dread angel his terrors exerted 

To bar all approach to the life-giving tree. 
Lest there our dead parents should both be converted 

And live to the Lord, and live happy and free : 
For, let me confess, if the death here were moral, 

The life, too, was moral from Adam debarr'd ; 
So then we 've damnation for ever, and for all, 

Instead of salvation, and that is too hard ! 

LXXV. 

" So now, my dear friends, you will see in a minute, 

Salvation from sin is not what we believe ; 
Our system has nought of salvation within it, 

As what we deserve we are sure to receive. 
For ev'ry transgression and sin God will flog us, 

But gently and mildly we all shall be flogg'd ; 
He'll chase us and hunt us, and make our sins clog us, 

And yet ' twill be doubtful if we 're flogg'd or dogg'd. 

LXXVI. 

" Therefore, the salvation that we make our boast in, 

Is not from our sins, or from their punishment, 
Nor yet from a hell that the wicked may roast in, 

Nor from any ills of the devil's intent. [ies 
We 're sav'd from ourselves, we'll be sav'd from our bod- 

"VVhich God made to die after ling'ring in pain : 
Such is our salvation, and such, too, our God is — 

He '11 make us immortal when he makes again. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



41 



LXXVII. 

"Divines have long sought the original evil 3 

To know how and whence the malignity came — 
And mostly imagine it came from the devil, 

And now on the devil they saddle the blame : 
But we, in this case, as the counsel for plaintiff, 

Do meet the indictment, and negate the crime ; 
He 's no more to blame than the holiest saint, if 

I prove that he did not exist at the time. 

LXXVIII. 

I The truth lieth here : the first evil was nat'ral, 

As head-ache, or tooth-ache, or ague, or gout, 
And sin incidental, or merely collat'ral, 

The stream to the fountain to carry it out. 
Hence, for the first sin, we must look to the female, 

Because her frail body must soonest be sick ; 
We afterward find moral evil in the male, 

When pierc'd, by some pungent disease, to the quick. 

LXXIX. 

:i The devil no longer, then, shall be put under 

A- fault that existed before he began ; 
Tis partialist folly — an orthodox blunder — 

There can be no devil on earth besides man. 
What devil there is, God design' d him and fix'd him 

A parcel and part of the first human pair, 
And into their vitals ingrain' d him and mix'd him, 

And made him the prince of the power of air. 



42 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



LXXX. 

"But there are great themes for the present laid over 

Till this night a week, when I'll sing them to you — 
Meanwhile I will study devoutly to cover 

Our most peccant parts, and read 1 father Ballou.' 
We '11 now be dismiss' d : may you honor and cherish 

The word of salvation so graciously giv'n ; 
If not, ye shall linger in darkness, and perish. 

And die in your sins, and be turn'd into— -heav'n !" 



THE 

UNIVERSALIAD, 



CANTO III. 

"But here I am balk'd at God's will's operation, 
And cannot conceive what it once was about ; 
For if it must now banish sin from creation, 
'Tis strange that it did not at first keep it out." 

Canto III, 92. 



THE ARGUMENT. 

Our hero continueth to harangue from the oratorio: he draweth 
the distinction between guilt and sin ; God will by no means 
clear the guilty, yet he cleareth all sinners who are saved. He 
attempteth to reconcile this contradiction, but makes it worse 
than before. JVb means and some means amplified. Pardon in- 
troduced: its value in religion, according to his doctrine. The 
God of Universalism defined, and proved to be the devil. What 
would be the consequence if men followed the example of the 
Universal ist God. 

Our hero confesseth other difficulties: he sees no value in Christ, 
if sinners suffer all they deserve. But he pleadeth that the 
will of God will be done— that sin will be driven out of the 
world by it; and yet he is at a loss to know why that will let 
it in. He confesseth there is no salvation from sin, and that 
Universalists are all unbelievers, as they make but little impor- 
tance of faith. He here telleth a part of his experience ; en- 
counters a Dutchman, who adviseth him to go home, and then 
giveth an account of other adventures. A new optical instru- 
ment introduced ; its uses and powers. Why Universalism is 
embraced by certain clergy. Some account of human nature 
here given; it is shown bowmen take poison from themselves, 
and then are damned for being as they were made. God's sov- 
ereignty asserted — that he has a right to give life in order to 
kill, if he pleases. 

The canto endeth by our hero's asking an oblation, in money, for 
his labors, and his promise that he will continue his song. The 
benediction. 



THE 



UNI VERSALIAD. 

CANTO III. 

" Muse ! now descend, or ascend, as the case is. 

And breathe inspiration to one that 's in doubt — 
'Tis nothing to me what thy name or thy place is, 

I'm whelm' d in confusion, nor wish to get out ! 
grant to me words that may rattle and jingle, 

And glitter distinctions unknown till this day, 
That things never mix'd I may tangle and mingle" — 

And thus having said, he continued to say : 

LXXXII. 

" My friends, I do feel that I'd gladly say something 

Still further exponent of what we believe, 
Lest you may conclude that our faith is a dumb thing 

And fitted the verdant and soft to deceive. 
"We say of the guilty, God never will clear 'em, 

Tho' oft he forgive th and maketh men clean ; 
Some way into heaven he'll lead 'em or steer 'em 

Unclear' d of their guilt, but all clear' d of their sin, 



46 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



LXXXIII. 

" The Scriptures say, Moses assuredly so means 

When th' name of Jehovah he publish' d abroad; 
And these are his words — " The Almighty by no means 

The guilty will clear," not by faith or by blood: 
And yet we maintain that all those who were guilty 

On earth, do by some means go up to the skies ; 
But, if hence our night-shade grows limber and wilty, 

The fools cannot see, and who cares for the wise ! 

LXXXIV. 

" There 's no contradiction in this, that is certain, 

Tho' partialist writers affirm that there is 
(They always are putting their garrulous dirt in 

Whatever we say of salvation and bliss) ; 
For, when I affirm that God granteth a pardon 

To such as have suffer'd the sentence of law, 
There 5 s no contradiction — it only bears hard on 

The fact that the pardon is worth not a straw. 

LXXXV. 

"No means shall be us'd for the guilty's purgation, 

And hence all their punishment falls out of place; 
And far worse than nothing is all their damnation, 

And shadows of shades are both pardon and grace. 
Our god, after all, is a merciless tyrant, 

He addeth insult to our hapless estate ; 
And Satan himself, if he stood an aspirant 

To godhead, would find ample scope for his hate. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



47 



LXXXVI. 

" Our fathers on earth, if they ap'd the example 

Of what we call God as he deals with mankind. 
Would be worse than savage, and brutally trample 

All mercy in dust, and leave ruin behind. 
For ev'ry transgression and slight peccadillo, 

Domestics, or servants, or children might do, 
They 'd rush to the birch, or the hick'ry, or willow, [blue. 

And scourge them, and pommel their flesh black and 



u Our doctrine of pardon we pledge to this statement, 

That all we deserve of chastisement shall fall 
Upon us ere pardon, without an abatement — 

But this, I confess, is no pardon at all. 
And, hence, in our god, there 's no mercy or goodness, 

Compassion or justice, his reign to adorn ; 
He 's made up of darkness, and roughness, and rudeness. 

And is the old devil, as sure as you 're born ! 



LXXXVIII. 
" I once knew a man, for veracity noted, 

"Who said that his horse was full eighteen feet high, 
When all the by-standers with one accord voted, 

{ You must have meant hands, sir, or else, sir, you lie !' 
4 But, did I say feet V then he mildly entreated ; 

c You did,' was the answer attested by three ; 
' Well, then, if I said feet J the fellow repeated, 

> They were feet, they are feet, and feet they shall be P 



48 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



LXXXIX. 

" } Tis thus I'm perplex' d by the views I inherit, 

That here we must suffer in full for our sin. 
And pay off the last bitter dregs of demerit — 

I've said, and will stand to it thro' thick and thin ! 
But how it can be so, that Christ's mediation. 

To sinners thus suff 'ring, can stand for a groat, 
I know not, I care not ; I'll call it salvation — 

'Twill do for a word, tho' 'twill not for a thought. 

XC. 

"If Christ died, a sacrifice suited to mankind, 

His will was to save, and his will shall be done ; 
'Tis good news to all men, that every one can find, 

And shall find, a blessing that 's promis'd to none : 
For should a friend ask what Immanuel died for, 

I could not well tell him, tho' sure not for sin — 
We must bear our own sins — 'twere vain if we tried for 

Release, we can't have it — we cannot begin ! 

XCL 

" Tho' humbled in dust and o'erwhelm'd with contrition, 

Tho' penitence heave the deep groan and the sigh, 
Tho' faith pleads for mercy, and prayer for remission, 

Confession up- turning her tear-streaming eye — 
Yet still for the sinner there 's no mitigation, 

His bonds are of death, cold and stringent, and grim ! 
We tell the offender, for his consolation, 

God pardons his sin, but will not pardon him ! 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



XCIL 

" I've own'd this already in foregoing stanzas, 

But here Hfcrepeat it and hold to it still ; 
To cut down the pillars of heaven with hand-saws, 

Were work sooner done than to frustrate God's will : 
But here I am balk'd at this will's operation, 

And cannot conceive what it once was about ; 
For if it must now banish sin from creation, 

'Tis strange that it did not at first keep it out. 

XCIII. 

"But all will be sav'd, tho' there be no salvation 

From sin — and there is none, I frankly confess ; 
But Christ died for all men, of every nation, 

To save them from something, but what I can't guess. 
We suffer for sin to the full even measure 

That justice decrees — that is certain and true — 
But how, then, in Christ, we can find a great treasure, 

Is more than I know, but — read father Ballou. 1 

XCIV. 

" We have many writers, some poets and scribblers, 

Fault-finders and preachers, who talk by the yard ; 
But none of this host, not e'en cobblers and dribblers, 

Have paid these grave matters a moment's regard: 
Perhaps they can see thro' them better than I do, 

And deem them too foolish, or too ill express'd, 
Or some way unworthy to make a reply to, 

And thus let them slip. See 1 the Star in the West.' 
4 

\ 



50 



THE UNIVERSAL1AB, 



xcv. 

" Our party, 'tis true, in debate always did well 

To prove that the bad are as safe as tjie good ; 
But why brand as infidel old brother Kidwell, 

Who stands fair for glory, and always has stood? 
If faith, as we hold, that great virtue supernal, 

With that which creates it, the Bible its rule, 
Is no way essential to glory eternal, 

We 're all unbelievers, or I am a fooL 

XCVL 

" If infidels shall, just as sure as believers, 

Have this and the next world, the point we allow. 
What loss is sustained by deceiv'd or deceivers ? 

Most surely none then, and as surely none now. 
Then why this ado about faith and opinion ? 

Why one with another creed seek to compare'? 
Why wrangle and quarrel, as if for dominion, 

When all shall obtain it, whatever they are? 

XCVIL 

" that I had some one to brace up this matter. 

To prove, from the Bible, that faith 's of no use, 
Except on the foot-stool where human things clatter, 

And that, even here, it can bring little to 's ! 
I've tried it myself, but have tried but to fail in % 

I fear once again to cut loose from the docks ; 
The sea is so rough that my bark will not sail in 't, 

Or sail but to founder and split on the rocks. 



THE UNIVERSALIAB. 



XCVIII. 

11 1 sail'd once on reason, a voyage (no fib this), 

When young, and the breeze bore me merrily on ; 
But, veering from Scylla, and I sunk in Charybdis, 

And ail but the cargo was wreck' d, and is gone: 
But that, being volatile, pop'd to the surface, 

And floated, dispers'd like a million of corks; 
Said I, that 's salvation ! — 'twas then I saw her face 

That smil'd me to glory without faith or works ! 

XCIX. 

" Then going to preach thus I met with a Dutchman, 

Who bade me go home and to follow some trade 
(The dregs of mankind are prolific of such men) — 

And thus in his way the philosopher said : 
'Now, if what you preach be the truth^ my kind neighbor, 

We want no more of it — we 're safe by your rule ; 
But, if Hu a lie^ you may shorten your labor — 

We then do not want it ' — and laugh' d like a fool. 

C. 

"Alas, for I find such wherever I travel 

Damnation-salvation to teach and dispense, 
Who mix in my food cinders, ashes, and gravel — 

For mankind will cling to their plain common sense. 
But when we have manag'd, by force of our fixture, 

To make a new creature, poor credulous soul ! 
We leave dang'rous common sense out of the mixture; 

Not tithing to weaken, we grapple the whole. 



52 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



CI. 

" We have in our shop, where we vend Yankee trinkets, 
A quaint optic glass, neatly set within bows ; 

And all who have purchas'd, and us'd it much, think it 's 
A parcel and part of their physical nose : 

And peasants, seen thro' it, appear virtuosos- 
All things are inverted, all colors are chang'd ; 

Not hearing with eyes, or the seeing with noses, 
Could show luckless wight any more disarrang'd. 

CIL 

"In th' reading of law, or of med'cine, or hist'ry, 

The glass, hath no use — all without it is plain ; 
'Twas made for the Bible, to wrap it in myst'ry, 

To muffle its terrors and render them vain. 
Hence death after death with the devil, perdition, 

Are figures and shades, or but jokes of the Lord ; 
While life, peace, and joy, in eternal fruition, 

Are faithful and true as the voice of his word. 

cm. 

" To tell the whole truth, it is said, shames the devil ; 

It will, if there be one, beyond any doubt ; 
Well, the cause of our faith is, we all were so evil 

We had to find some scheme to bubble us out. 
'And what will reach me,' says our prince of polemics, 

£ Him also will reach who 's to hell's grunsel hurl'd — 
The med'cines that cure all the worst epidemics, 

Will heal minor evils all over the world.' 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



53 



CIV. 

" There 's still something further I gladly would mention, 

As touching man's fate and the justice divine : 
I've not yet divulg'd my orig'nal intention, 

Or only hut partially fill'd the design. 
Mankind well deserve the damnation they suffer, 

The dread bitter product of long broken laws 
('Tis well their dark fate is no darker and rougher)— 

And now they must pine as blasphemers, because 

OV. 

" God has our whole nature so mix'd and entangled, 

That each from himself moral poison partakes ; 
Then, poison'd by nature, by justice we 're mangled, 

As we mangle serpents because they are snakes. 
And hence, after all, there is no great distinction 

'Tween virtue and vice, between evil and good; 
God works them together, or this one he links on 

To that — one is t' other with both understood, 

CYL 

u We are what we are, and what God made us ; therefore 

'Tis justice in him to afflict if he will ; 
And we have no right to inquire why or wherefore 

He first gave us life just in order to kill: 
His will is in all things, it never yet miss'd one, 

Not even the least, since creation began ; 
'Tis like a steam engine, whose almighty piston 

Drives worlds in their orbits, and angels, and man, 



54 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



CVII. 

" But here I must finish my rhyming oration — 

I've sung it with mixture of pleasure and pain : 
Now give me. my brethren, some fitting oblation. 

In cash, and 111 sing at my leisure again. 
We '11 now be dismiss'd : may you honor and cherish 

The word of salvation so graciously giv'n ; 
If not, you shall linger in darkness, and perish, 

And die in your sins, and be turn'd into — heav'n V 1 



THE 



UNIVERSAL IAD, 

CANTO IV. 

'Objections of this kind throng in by the hundred — 

Enough, did we weigh them, to make us forget 
Our charlatan dogma, now riven and sunder'd — 
But, ah, precious bait! we must nibble thee yet!" 

Canto IV, 121. 



THE ARGUMENT. 



Once more in his oratorio, our hero invoketh the powers of quib- 
bling to give him success in inverting the meaning of the Bible. 

n the first place, he adduceth the promise to Abraham as his 
grand proof-text, but flndeth difficulty from Paul's commentary 
thereon. He attempteth to explain being in Christ and Christ's. 
Isaiah is next introduced, and chapter liii is particularly refer- 
red to. But here, again, he flndeth difficulties. 

The goodness of God is asserted, and the argument arising there- 
from is fully stated; but the hero finds that there is a, difficulty 
of great magnitude in the midst of the subject — God being as 
good now as he will ever be, and yet there is much misery in 
the world. 

The great Universalist theme — the resurrection of the dead as a 
purifying process — is next introduced ; but, as the principal de- 
baters on that side have taken the position that it is not the 
same body that dies which rises, our hero flndeth much difficul- 
ty in preserving the identity of his subjects, till he finally con- 
fesseth that, according to Universalism, there can be no resur- 
rection at all He thinks that the blood of atonement may pos- 
sibly be applied in the resurrection, though it may fail to effect 
conversion in this life. 

He confesseth, finally, that his brethren made" the promise of life 
to the ancient Jews with bad effect, but thinks that Gentiles 
may have better sense, though he acknowledges the prospect 
bad. Concluding stanza. The benediction. 



THE 

UNIVEKSALIAD. 



CANTO IV. 

" Ye angels of doubt ! all ye powers litigious. 

Thou genius of carping and quibbling, draw near ! 

My task is herculean, my danger prodigious ! 

If e'er there was need, there is need for you here. 

My task is the Bible to turn to a rhebus, 

Or plain things t' obscure, the forbidding displace : 

Come Circe, come Janus, come Ate, come Phoebus — 

. All deities come that can boss such a case ! 

CIX. 

"And now, anxious friends, let me turn to the Bible, 

And make it sustain all the foregoing views — 
The task, I confess it, is much like a libel, 

However, I'll try it — assist me my Muse ! 
And first of the promises God made to Abram— 

'All kindreds, and nations, and families shall ['em 
Be bless'd in his seed' — and these words, if we lab'r 

Will prove that salvation pertaineth to all. 



58 



THE UNI VER SALT AD. 



ex. 

" For what human creature, I ask it most calmly. 

Belongs to no nation, or kindred, or tribe? 
What son or what daughter belongs to no fam'ly? 

Or who can a race without fam'lies describe ? 
So, then, till the partialists shall find a nation 

Of kin to no tribe in the annals of time, 
Our doctrine must stand, universal salvation, 

And orthodox sinners may fret in their crime. 

CXI. 

" 'Tis true, that when Paul, the great Gentile apostle, 

Comments on this promise to old Abraham, 
He utters some things which do threaten to jostle 

Our whole superstructure, and prove it a sham. 
For, when he defineth the scope of the sentence, 

He pinneth the blessing to faith in the Creed, [ance, 
And owns them for Christ's who own faith and repent- 

For, 6 if ye are Christ's, ye are Abraham's seed. 3 

CXII 

" But, then, who are Christ's ? Paul most plainly applieth 

The phrase to all such as believe in the Lord — 
To him who, by taking his cross, crucifieth 

The flesh and its lust, in obeying the Word. 
But still there 's another sense, wider and mystic, 

In which all are Christ's, both the good and the ill : 
While only a few are his characteristic, 

All others are his, if they will not, or will. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



59 



CXIII. 

" We take the apostle the last way, upon sense 

Which makes him agree with himself otherwheres, 
Tho' partialists charge that the whole is but nonsense — 

But that thing is not our concern — it is theirs ! 
For if we can manage the promise to mumble, 

Effacing distinctions the Spirit has made, r 
We '11 not lack for converts to swallow the jumWe, | 

Nor yet lack for money, the life of our trade. 

CXIY. 

u Hence, £ if ye are Christ's,' is a phrase just equivalent 

To ' all men are Christ's, both the good and the bad 
Nor has this position the least deadly evil in 't — 

Truth always is sane, it is we who are mad. 
If any are in Christ, all such are new creatures, 

But in him is all the whole race of mankind, 
Or all will be in him hereafter, with features 

Immortal with bliss, purified and refin'd. 

cxv. 

<£ This truth is well told by Isaiah, the prophet, 

When he had a view of the glories he sung, 
Beyond every hell, whether Tart'rus or Tophet, 

Live coals from the altar inspiring his tongue. 
He sung the Messiah for man a sin-off 'ring, 

And that, by his stripes, we are heal'd and supplied, 
And that he shall see, of his travail and suff 'ring, 

The redemption of all men, and he satisfied. 



60 



THE UNIVERSALIAB. 



CXVI. 

" How can the blest goodness, that reigns in his nature, 

Be well satisfied while a sinner remains 
Unsav'd from his sins, a disconsolate creature. 

And sinking still deeper in horrors and pains ? 
No, no, it can't be ! if the sins and transgressions 

Of all were on him — if for all he would die — 
The import of these and all sim'lar expressions, 

Is, all will be sav'd — nor will less satisfy. 

CXVII. 

" There are, after all, and 'tis candid to own it, 

Some difficult things by the same prophet said, 
And had he believ'd just as we do, and shown it. 

The item in question had never been read : 
For, laying the sorrows of Christ the foundation 

Or cause of redemption from sins that are past, 
He says, 'by his knowledge is justification/ 

And this is essential to glory at last. 

CXVIIL 

a Besides — if God's goodness be such as we view it, 

How is it that sorrow and sighing and tears 
Have delug'd the world, all around it and through it, 

And linger'd and revel'd for six thousand years? 
If th' goodness of God and his other perfections 

Demand of themselves that all sorrows shall fall. 
Why do they occasion these solemn objections, 

Or suff 'rings and sorrows, how came they at all? 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



81 



CXIX. 

R If God can be good during all the dark ages 

Of earth, and amid her unut'rable throes, 
He may remain good, tho' another hell rages. 

And longer and deeper its sorrows and woes, 
If goodness, benevolence, righteousness, mercy, 

Still reign, but men die notwithstanding their reign, 
Will all these perfections, tho' perfect, but per se, 

Prevent hardened sinners from dying again? 

cxx. 

" If one sin of one man, as Paul clearly teacheth, 

Drew curse on the ground, and on Adam disgrace. 
And if, through all nations and ages, it reacheth, 

Swift dealing out death to the whole human race — 
May not the dark deeds by bold wretches committed, 

Entail on themselves all the ruin they dread % 
May not sin, the germ of death, poison' d and fitted, [dead? 

Then curse them with death tho' they rise from the 

CXXL 

" With all these grave maters I've thus been most candid 5 

And partialists of them may make what we guess ; 
And, 'mong all the saints Abrahamic, what man did, 

Till now, our perplexities frankly confess ? 
Objections of this kind throng in by the hundred — 

Enough, did we weigh them, to make us forget 
Our charlatan dogma, now riven and sunder'd — 

But, ah, precious bait ! we mwt nibble thee yet ! 



62 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



cxxn. [you 

" We plant our strong batt'ries against hell and wrath, 

Perceive, and the orthodox fiercely rebuke ; 
We build up our house by a passage from Matthew 3 

But they knock it down by another from Luke. 
And thus I have found, that the deeper I stir the 

Great pool of salvation, the clearer it seems, 
Thy bliss, resurrection, is writ for the worthy— 

If th' unworthy hope it, their hopes are but dreams. 

CXXIII. 

" But still, like brave men once repuls'd from a rampart, 

We rally our force to the battle again ; 
On part of the truth we lay stress, but we jam part 

As far into darkness and doubt as we can. 
And what if we make both disciple and master 

Each other confute in the tale they have told % 
Our cause, for this reason, spreads wider and faster, 

And the fleece will increase with the flocks of the fold. 

CXXIV. 

" To the resurrection, on former occasions, 

Allusion was made, as a laver to purge 
From sin, by some inward or outward abrasions, 

Or some unknown process not needful to urge : 
But now a few thoughts I commit for inspection, 

About what the word resurrection doth mean— 
And while I present them they 5 11 kill the objection 

That it cannot be for remission of sin. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



63 



cxxv. 

" That every one rises that under the clod is. 

Or will rise hereafter, to utter it plain, 
Is truth without figure, but not the same bodies 

That liv'd and that died, can be rais'd up again. 
In far other bodies we '11 rise up immortal. 

But, in foreign bodies, how can we be we? 
And this is a secret I cannot solve, nor tell 

How / quite another than J am to be ? 

CXXVI. 

" The body to be is not that one we die in, 

The body to come never liv'd, never died; 
God gives us a new one, thro' glory to fly in — 

The saints of all ages have thus been supplied. 
But then, after all, thunders in the objection, 

To which not an answer I'm able to give — 
According to us, there is no resurrection^ 

For what means the word but that dead men shall live? 

CXXVII. 

"And what, in the hist'ry of men, is a dead man? 

And has it been known that the dead ever liv'd? 
Then take, as a sample of both, the great Head Man 

Of all the creation, who died and reviv'd. 
But, did he rise up, as intending to rival 

The secrets of God, or reduce them to dross 
In some foreign body? it was the revival 

Of Jesus, the selfsame who died on the cross. 



64 



THE UNIVERSAL! AD. 



CXXVIIL 

" 'Twas tlien from the tombs, which the holy books say bes 

Hard-by to Mount Sion, dead bodies arose 
And went into Salem, good Daniel, it may be, 

With great kings and prophets, 'tis just to suppose ; 
And there they appear' d, the first-fruits of redemption, 

To many who saw and their persons confess'd — [tion, 
They went with their Lord by faith's right of pre-emp- 

To th' Canaan above, and have enter'd their rest. 

CXXIX. 

"All this readeth plainly, and Paul, most explicit, 

Compareth the body to seed that one sows ; 
If truth were our object, 'twould be hard to miss it. 

From th' old body planted, the new body grows. 
5 Tis sown in dishonor, but rises in glory : 

In weakness 'tis sown, but it rises in strength ; 
3 Tis nat'ral, corrupt, and is, all the the world o'er, a 

Vile body, but rises immortal at length. 

cxxx. 

" To sum up the whole in a single expression, 

5 Tis change of the same thing when hades we leave— 
A change of the body, not mind ; and confession 

Hereof is grim death to the faith we receive. 
Our spirits rise not — if they 're not the identic, 

The very same bodies we buried, that rise, 
There 's no resurrection at all, and authentic 

And true is the orthodox creed we despise ! 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



CXXXI. 

e " The subject demands, here, another inflection, 
And questions arise which involve the design, 
The scope, end or object, of the resurrection — 

As, what is it for ? the purgation of sin % 
It can't be for this, if the bodies be foreign 
l i That we, in the morning of glory, shall wear : 
h Purgation is either by faith and truth, or in 

Our rising from death — but how is it, or where ? 

CXXXII. 

u But here I confess, that whene'er we appeal it 

To th' Scriptures of truth, the whole case is so plain 
That none can mistake — see how clear they reveal it, 

That pardon 's by blood of the Lamb that was slain ! 
From Genesis onward to John's Revelation, 

There 's no laver mention'd to wash away sin, 
Except the great Laver of Regeneration, 

And faith and obedience, in that, make us clean. 

CXXXIIL 

"But may not the blood of Messiah's atonement 

In the resurrection be truly applied? [meant, 
What else with the prophets the great Corner Stone 

Sure none, but with us, can its purpose 'decide. 
Are not many facts and truths found by deduction 

From other fact3 truly and carefully taught? 
All good constitutions admit of construction, 

And why should the Bible facts suffer it not ? 
5 



66 THE UNIVERSALIAD. 

CXXXIV. 

" God so lov'd the world that he gave the Messiah, 

That all the believers might live evermore ; 
But, if faith shall fail with some, may he not try a 

Device which was never adopted before? 
Now, faith is of God, and the Gospel God's power ; 

Yet if, in some cases, they do not avail, 
Should his potence fall in another great shower, 

The great resurrection, then it, too, may fail ! 

cxxxv. 

" 'Tis wisest and best, then, most safe and most pious, 

To walk by the Scriptures, believe and obey, [us, 
Be wash'd from our sins in the blood that 's bro't nigh 

Through faith of the heart, and urge on in the way. 
If power divine has been known to fail one time, 

Or lose upon rebels its object and force, 
Perchance it may fail upon us, if we run time^ 

All off in the deeds that become worse and worse. 

CXXXVI. 
"Ah me ! for I find I am all in confusion. 

Perplex' d and confounded, and see nothing clear 
But vain speculation and cogent delusion— 

The truth ever flies me, but ever is near ! 
And truly I know they read Hebrew and Greek ill, 

Who say that our doctrine doth not tend to shame ; 
Our friends, in the days of the prophet Ezekiel, 

Said sinners should live, and we publish the same. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



67 



CXXXVIL 

a The ' promise of life ' that we made in old J ewry 

To sinners, did strengthen their conscience in wrong. 
Whereat all the orthodox flew in a fury, 

And said that we lied, and proclaim'd it in song.* 
But tho' on that promise the bad J ews did trample, 

And kept on in sin from the promise we made, 
Will Gentiles in sin imitate the example, 

When we preach the same thing and perfect the trade? 

CXXXVIII 
" If we promise life, and that life be a lesser 

Than life everlasting, and if that be wrong, 
Eternal life promis'd the Gospel transgressor, 

In th' ratio of difference doth forge his bonds strong. 
So when to the sinners, of all grades and classes, 

We guaranty heav'n, tho' they die all astray, 
We make them as stubborn and stupid as asses, 

And thence fit for naught but to baffle and bray. 

cxxxix. 

"And thus we proclaim the sublimest curios'ty — 

That sinners who die in their sins shall find life ! 
We wrap up our worm in cocoons of verbos'ty, 

And marshal an army of words to the strife. 
We promise them hell, too, before they reach glory, 

But hell is their training, the best to be found ; ' 
And thus, when we 've manag'd to mix up a story, 

The simple believe, for the simple abound. 



* Ezekiel xiii, 22. 



68 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



CXL. 

"And thus having sung Abraham's Biatheke, 

That saves ? without faith or works, all human kind, 
Cry out, every brother, l Hureka : Hurelia V 

Tve found it ! and give idle fear to the wind ! 
We '11 now be dismiss' d : may you honor and cherish 

The word of salvation so graciously giv'n ; 
If not, ye shall linger in darkness, and perish. 

And die in your sins, and be turn'd into — heav'n !" 



THE 

U NIVE R SAL IAD, 



CANTO V. 

" When Aaron went into Sanctissimus Locus, 

He died while he liv'd, but kept ringing his bell ; 
And thus, by a long-labor'd hard hocus pocus, 
We get around judgment, damnation, and hell." 

Canto V, 152. 



THE ARGUMENT. 



The hero recapitulateth his subjects, and findetli himself commit 
ted for other labors. An apostrophe to Music. He resumeth 
his explication of the Scriptures. Romans viii claimed. 1 
Corinthians xv, supposed to favor Universalism ; but he findeth 
many difficulties in this application. He deploreth the amount: 
of labor in reconciling texts on the opposite side. A passage! 
in Heb. ix, "As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after 
this the judgment," so perplexeth him that he wisheth it out of 
the Scriptures : however, he maketh the best he can of it, and 
asserteth that the death here mentioned was the introgression 
of the Jewish high-priests into the holy of holies once a year. 

He introduceth the subject of the origin of moral evil, or sin, and 
showeth, from the example of a man smitten on the head or 
shin, that we sometimes commit sin in word by reason of the hurt. 
A man will sometimes swear when teased and tormented. He 
next introduceth the subject of endless misery, and pathetically 
argueth that there can be no such thing in the universe — that 
men cannot sin enough to merit such a cruel destiny. But, 
though, with him, endless torments are out of the question, he 
is not right sure that all will or must be saved ; he thinketh the 
incorrigible may be annihilated. He then giveth some advice to 
the clergy; telleth how to manage new converts — that they 
must at first be fed on thin and weak diet, and afterward on 
that which is stronger ; and cometh to a conclusion. The usual 
benediction. 



i 



THE 

UNIYEESALIAD. 



CANTO V. 

" I who erst did stand in this great oratorio, 

And patiently sung for the weal of mankind, 
The more that I sing, feel of singing, the more I owe 

To all the dear people t' enlighten their mind. 
I know they can't miss of the glory eternal, 

But lest they should miss of earth's happiest days, 
And lest, too, I fail of my specie diurnal, 

I still strike the cords, and replenish my lays ! 

CXLII. 

" Music, sweet Music ! thou daughter of J uno, 

Thou Poesy, sent from celestial abodes, [know ? 
My heart's warm affection for goddess charms you 

And what for the whole generation of gods, 
Especially Fate, the great god epicurean, 

"Whose extra-almighty will binds even J ove— 
Which will fixeth all things without judge or jury on 3 

And makes men machines, is the god that I love, 



72 THE UNIVERSALIAD. 

CXLIIL 

" Remember, my friends, I am now on the Scripture, 

To turn them aside from their natural course; 
I've taken my stand and will hold to my grip sure, 

In spite of objections from critical source. 
And, dropping the covenant made with good Abram, 

I come to the places that fashion our creed, 
To grasp 'em and twist 'em, and tangle and tabor 'em, 

And press them t' a caitse they're unwilling to plead. 

CXLIV. 

" Next, in all the prophets, Isaiah, Ezekiel, 

We find that our great fact at last shall prevail : 
Thus all partial systems are weigh 5 d, mme tekel, 

And old orthodoxy flies up in the scale. 
But, when we come down to the new dispensation, 

Truth shines forth upon us a heavenly charm ; 
No devil, no hell after death, no damnation * 

Eternal, nor any thing else to alarm. 

CLXV. 

" What Paul writeth down in the .eighth of his Romans, 
Creation, I call it the whole human race- — 

While every one knoweth, or might know, that no man's 

p Good sense or good learning can make out the case. 

When this word occurreth in all other verses, 
It meaneth the earth, man's terrestrial abode, 

Which shall de deliver'd from bondage of curses, 
And made a new earth for the children of God. 



i 



THE UNIVEKSALIAD. 



73 



CXLYI. 

" But there is a passage in Paul's first Corinthian 

Epistle, which sets the whole matter to rest ; 
It is a rich mine, and has greatly more in 't than 

The others, though rich, and is clearest and best. 
Paul tells us of Adam, how all men die through him, 

And how, through the Second Man, all live again : 
Then how, when he calls all the dead to come to him, 

Can any be rais'd for destruction and pain. 

CXLVIL 

"The order of time is what Paul here has given, 

And this once confess' d, our position obtains — 
That godliness hath not the promise of heaven 

More sure than the blackest ungodliness gains. 
But this I confess, that the word render' d order. 

Is tagmci) and meaneth a cohort or band ; 
That such is its meaning from center to border 

Of th 3 { old-fashion' d Bible we lay on the stand.' 

CXLVIII. 

" I know that my labor is horribly stretch'd out 

To reconcile texts on the opposite side ; 
But still the great doctrine must always be fetch' d out, 

And these self-same Scriptures be to it applied: 
Which leads me a round of verbose exegeses, 

To make it appear that behind is before, 
That past means the present, and other such theses 

As oft you have heard ani shall hear them yet more. 



74 



THE UNIVERSAL! AD, 



CXLIX. 

u You '11 now bear in mind that, in foregoing cantos, 

I prov'd that, for sin, Adam morally died ; 
And, if that position your clemency grant us, 

'Twill be moral death in Corinthians descried. 
Whatever the death was of man in the garden, 

That death the apostle in argument owns ; 
If moral, we 're out ! and if nat'ral, we 've warr'd on 

The partialist host to the breach of our bones ! 

CL. 

" In Hebrews the ninth there oceurreth a sentence 

That troubles me greatly — I would 't were not there ! 
I twist it and turn it till broken or bent, hence 

My labors look squalid, jejune and unfair: 
But still my dear brethren (as when we exhort 'em) 

Can see at a glance all we teach them, and more — 
They see that the judgment appointed, post mortem, 

Is not after death, but is always before. 

CLL 

" When thus I have sung them a song to my hautboy 

The lesser disciples of figures, grown bold, 
Can chatter their Greek, saying ^Hoi and Anthropoid 

And these mean the high-priests in Israel of old 1 
When Aaron comes out of the holy of holies, 

He comes to the judgment to bless the whole band; 
And this is the race that we run, and the goal is, 

That all will be sav'd, and the doctrine shall stand. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



75 



CLII. 

To sum up the argument in a grand total. 

The death here decreed, and of which Paul doth speak. 
Is death in a figure, a death sacerdotal, 

And prove it we can by a smatter in Greek. 
When Aaron went into sanctissimns locus, 

He died while he liv'd, but kept ringing his bell; 
And thus, by a long-labor' d hard hocus focus, 

We get around judgment, damnation and hell. 

CLIII. 

a I've one comfort yet, for the fools are not all dead, 

Ten thousand are living to echo my song ; 
Tho' I am perplex' d, and just ready to fall dead, 

They feel not my sorrows, nor know they are long. 
Then over the world let me ramble to hail 'em, 

And call them to swill like most dutiful swine ; 
I'll talk like that eloquent linguist of Balaam — 

The thoughts are another's, the labor is mine. 

CLIV. 

u Corinth'ans death nat'ral must hear of, the Hebrews 

Death couch' d in a figure to miter-crown' d priest — 
And they that distinguish not thus in their debuts, 

Can never be great men, will ever be least. 
Whenever our work is well woven, 'tis cross'd rich 

With woof-bars, while checkers and figures are spread : 
We turn, dodge and double, like close-pursued ostrich 

In quest of some rubbish to bury its head. 



76 



THE UNJVERSALIAD. 



CLV. 

11 The partialist preachers have made themselves merry 

With what we affirm as the causes of sin ; 
But this is unmanly in them, and is very 

Good proof of their weakness when thus they begin. 
'Tis true, we ourselves, when we find good occasions, 

Do lampoon and vilify all in our way ; 
But then it is mean to detect our evasions. 

And taunt us when we can find nothing to say. 

CLVL 

u We say of all sin, that it sprang from diseases, 

Or, what is the same thing, from physical ills ; 
And had there been no sin to vex or to tease us, 

The doctor had still found employ for his pills. 
I make my appeal to the hearer's exper'ence — 

When he had a blow on his pate or his shin, 
He surely was vex'd, perhaps swore, and 'tis clear, hence, 

That here nat'ral ill was productive of sin. 

CLVII. 

" We 're not, then, such fools as the orthodox mock-law 

Imagines we are, and hence let him take heed ! 
Damnation itself may grow out of the lock-jaw, 

And hell from the cholic, as plants from their seed. 
And do we not read, in the Bible, of bad men 

Who, press'd with affliction, ill-natur'dly rail 
And curse and blaspheme their Creator, like mad-men, 

Because he rains on them his fire and his hail? 



THE UNIVEItSALIAD. 



77 



CLVIIL 

u But, as heretofore I have sung of this matter, 

As nothing 's so dull as a double-told tale, 
I'll strike up a theme that will pierce, bruise, and batter 

The partialists' giant, and shiver his mail. 
Their big ugly devil, their hell that is endless, 

Their sea of fus'd brimstone all glowing and red, 
Where sinners are whelm' d and burnt ever, and friendless 

And hopeless, are things too revoltingly bad ! 

CLIX. 

"Just think of a furnace all red-hot and blazing, 

A hundred times hotter than smelters employ, 
Or founders have known, and eternally raising 

Its already fervent heat higher, more high ! 
And think of the keen pangs, the screaming and crying. 

The weeping, the wailing, the gnashing of teeth, 
Of wretches suspended in death, but undying, 

For ever, and ever, and ever, beneath ! 

CLX, 

" Then ask, if a lifetime of crimes and of errors 

Can merit thus much from the hands of the Lord, 
Such wasteless, unceasing, fierce anguish and terrors, 

Because a few times they rejected his word? 
No ! sinners may sin just as much as they want to. 

Despise and reject all authority giv'n, 
And still, after death, they '11 be sure to go on to 

(Some stripes in the passage) the glories of heav'n. 



78 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



CLXL 

"To say nought of Scripture, what saith to us reason? 

Suppose your dear mother to glory should go, 
Then look down to hell, that dark temple of treason, 

And see a lov'd daughter all welt'ring in wo: 
'T would break her pure heart, and her heaven dismantle, 

And spoil all the bliss in the palace of God ; 
In which case, you see, not philosophy can tell 

If heaven or hell be the better abode. 

CLXIL 

" Of course heaven's bliss hath already much faded. 

Its songs interrupted, its holiest mirth ; 
For sympathy's army hath gone and invaded 

The regions of joy with the groanings of earth. 
The saints in the skies, looking out from the portals, 

Behold their dear kindred in anguish and pains : 
Such heart-rending shrieking ascending from mortals 

Clothes heaven in sackcloth, and muffles its strains. 

CLXIII. 

" But tho' endless mis'ry cannot be defended, 

It follows by no means that all shall find bliss — 
May not the ungodly's existence be ended, 

And adequate punishment rest upon this? 
Hence, still I am out on a tremulous ocean 

Of doubt and conjecture, without chart or log— 
Ah, who of a crew can describe the emotion 

At sea, without compass and lost in the fog ? 



THE UNIVERSAL! AD. 



CLXIV, 

a A word to our friends : you should ever be prudent. 
And strive to conceal how our system is made : 

The preacher should be an industrious student 
To wrest and pervert — for, to wrest is his trade. 

Then go and maintain our dear dogma peculiar- 
Should any attack it and lay its limbs bare. 

Then lie of that man, adding, < Sir, what a fool you are ? s 
And that will suffice for a victory there ! 

CLXV. 

u Mankind are afraid of a new strange position. 

Nor always believe it, tho' often they wish ; 
Their powers of smell, taste, or of deglutition. 

Will balk at the presence of many a new dish. 
And who does not know that the Irish potato 

Was poison once tho't, but is us'd without stint ? 
And so, too, it was with the luscious tomato, 

Because people knew not the good that was in , t. 

CLXVI. 

« The old Pharisees, as good rabbi Ben Hammel, 

Excluded the gnats from the grape's precious juice ; 
But, practic'd awhile, they could swallow a camel — 

How much is effected by labor and use ! 
The people are shocked by our small innovations. 

When new tastes or habits we seek to impose ; 
But, after a while, they will bear the gradations, 

Till soon we can lead them about by the nose. 



80 THE UNIVERSALIAD. 

CLXVII. ; 
" 'Tis thus with our doctrine — if men will but smell it, 

That smell is a taste in the progress of time : 
They '11 swallow, digest it, and argue, and tell it, 

And then, ever after, crawl round in their slime. 
We feed them at first on our porridge and gruel, 

Mix'd up with some spices and form'd to a stew ; 
And then, if we see they are likely to do well, 

We give them the strong meat I've now given you. 

CLXVIIL 

" But here I must finish my rhyming oration — 

I've sung it with mixture of pleasure and pain : 
You '11 give me, my brethren, some fitting ovation. 

And then I will sing at my leisure again. 
We '11 now be dismiss'd : may you honor and cherish 

The word of salvation so graciously giv'n ; 
If not, you shall linger in darkness, and perish, 

And die in your sins, and be turn'd into — heav'n !" 



THE 

UNIVERSALIAD, 

CANTO VI. 

" 0, sin ! thou hast made our condition propitious ! 
What good to the world is by thee brought about f 
Jehovah himself, when to heaven he '11 fish us, 
Will get glory by thee he could not without.' ' 

Canto VI, 189. 



G 



THE ARGUMENT. 



After some respite, the hero commenceth his sixth speech from 
the oratorio. But having found, by perusing the Millennial 
Harbinger, that the Muses are reported as dead, he uttereth a 
pathetic lament over their dead bodies. He then resumeth his 
subject. Finding that the previous parts of the poem had been 
offensive to his clerical brethren, he justifieth himself in the 
whole premises. Upon the event of actual war between him- 
self and brethren, he threateneth them severely. He then pro- 
ceeds with the argument. The office, agency, and importance 
of sin in the universe. How sin came into the world — it was 
produced vegetatively in the original human constitution — it 
was communicated to Eve from the rib of which she was made — 
and, having worked itself into man, it will work itself out. 
General view of the utility of sin. Every evil will end in good — 
all lies in truth. An inquiry as to the comparative importance 
of virtue and vice ; or, which is more essential in the scheme of 
things. The greater evil men commit, the more the divine grace 
will abound to destroy it; and those who sin most and sink 
deepest, will shine brightest and rise highest. As it would be 
cruel to damn men because they may be tormented with vermin, 
or by disease, so it would be cruel to damn for sin, a disease in- 
evitable to human nature as God made it. The benediction. 



THE 



UNIVERSALIAD. 

CANTO VI. 

"As when the lone trav'ler who trudgeth pedestrian, 

Stops short in his journey and baiteth at noon ; 
Or, as when a caravan, moving equestrian, 

Falls out with the sun and falls in with the moon : 
So I to my labors would here make a period, 

Here finish my song, and await the well done ; 
And this I would do, did it not appear very odd 

To end a great work when 'tis only begun. 

CLXX. 

a The Muses are nine, or they were nine till lately ; 

Alas, they are slain, and their aid is no more ! 
that I had sung when I might have sung sweetly — 

The whole nine in majesty trailing before. 
Ah me ! they are dead, all dishevell'd their tendrils, 

Their robes all in tatters, unbuckl'd their zones, [rills 
Their harps are unstrung, and their nectar-ducts send 

Of sweet inspiration no more to their sons ! 



84 



THE tJNIVERSALlAD. 



CLXXI. 

" Henceforth, college students, professors and presidents, 
^ Must look to themselves for the aid they implore— 
The Muses are dead, and vacated their residence, 

And dullness will reign more than dullness before. 
Philosophers, editors, critics, and poets, 

For no extra impulse hereafter can look ; 
Excitement is down, and will stay down— and so it *s 

Decreed, that each author *goes on his own hook.' 

CLXXIL 

"And I go on mine. But thou terrible, stalwart, 

And rough iron arm that has slain every Muse, 
Ah, who knows thy potence, or who can tell all th'u art 

When armed with thy bludgeon to batter and bruise ! 
0, Crihfield ! than fall in thy hands, I had sooner all 

The mountains upon me were whelm' d from their base ! 
Of th' Muses thou kill'st, Campbell preacheth the fun'ral, 

Tho' to them unknown and untaught in their ways.* 

CLXXIII. 

" Here, then, in mid-labor of arduous journey, 

I've waited a respite for vigor and tone, 
But waiting has made the way thorny and ferny, 

And left me all museless to wander alone. 
Perhaps, from a habit I 'd already got in 

Before the demise of the Parnassades, 
1 may sing acceptably, although I'm not in 

The very best humor to profit and please. 



* See Millennial Harbinger for 1848, p. 120. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



85 



CLXXIV. 

u 1 find what was sung in the foregoing canto. 

By brethren in orders, is taken amiss ; 
Yet. what I have sung they are all bound to stan' to— * 

5 Tis true, they all know, then why blame me for this t ? 
I've sung and confessed our distinguishing dogma. 

That men go to heaven without faith or works ; 
Then why for my honesty torture and flog me, 

By robbing the bottles of wrath of their corks ? 

CLXXV. 

" Dear brethren ! why will you wax rougher and rougher^ 

The more and the plainer I sing of our ways ? 
Is 't pleasure to you that I'm troubled and suffer 

Your gall? or is gall but a mode of your grace? 
If so, pour it out now, and let it all loose, till 

Your bottles are empty and I am redeem' d : 
The sting of the adder, or ichor of goose-quill, 

Will be real blessings, tho' curses they seem'd. 

CLXXVL 

"Then press me and squeeze me, and bind me still tighter j 

What more fitting way your affection to show ? 
The deeper you dip into darkness, the brighter 

You '11 shine when the darkness is over below : 
And further and better — the more you afHict me, 

The better I'll feel when my suff 'rings are out : 
And when into heaven you Ve pommell'd and kicked me ? 

I'll thank you, my brethren, instead of the gout, 



86 THE UNIVERSALIS). 

CLXXVIL 

" But there is a point, in all human endurance. 

Beyond which 'tis sinful to suffer and bear ; 
And if at that point you should touch me, ye pure ones, 

Ye might go to glory before you 're aware ! 
If things must all tumble and form to that fashion, 

What glory to heaven will crown the great day, 
When th' asses of Egypt and strong bulls of Bashan 

Make battle 'tween music, the bellow and bray ! 

CLXXVIII 

" If fate (and it may !) to that strait should consign us. 

And hatred should stir up her hot crisping coals, 
And some kindred spirits around us should join us, 

What havoc on earth will be then made of souls ! 
We rush to the onset in hottest of hell-fire, 

While hell proves a funnel, and we its supplies, 
So that, just as fast as our fate bids us smell fire, 

So fast thro' that funnel of glory we rise ! 

CLXXIX. 

a For, do we not hold that a curse is a blessing, 

And, hence, that the more we are eurs'd we are blest? 
Therefore, if you kill me, my gain 's a no less thing 

Than heaven itself, with its glory and rest. 
Or, should I kill you, as I might, in this battle, 

Your souls would gush out at the point of my sword, 
And ramble and feed, as the cleanest of cattle 

Do crop the green grass on the hill of the Lord. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



87 



CLXXX. 

" 'Tis thought to be shameful for brethren to quarrel, 

The world deems it so, so the pious all should ; 
In truth, 'tis not so, as ye know brethren, for all 

Our wrongs end in rights, all our evils in good. 
And hence, when you blam'd me for making confessions, 

Or even told lies in the heat of the war, 
They '11 all end in truth, and so, too, will the fresh ones 

That blow in the c Trumpet' or shine in the 1 Star.' 

CLXXXI. 

u Perhaps the best way, after all, to proceed, is 

To fling down our arms and let other alone ; 
You know that exactly I've sung what our creed is — 

Then let us be quiet, and let us be one. 
And let me proceed ! now, no longer be surly, 

Ye saints Abrahamic ! while now I'm on wing, 
Thomas, Pingree, Grosh, and Gurley, 

The last and the least one, for you let me sing ! 

CLXXXII. 

" The world may be reckon'd somewhat like a placid, 

Pure barrel of cider, or wine, or of beer ; 
And sin introduced I compare to the acid 

That sets it to work, and that works it out clear. 
And who does not know that the cider, or beer, or 

The wine, is not good till it thoroughly works 1 
'Tis then pour'd away, and is sweeter and clearer, 

And, bottled, is quiet, nor threatens the corks. 



88 



THE UNIVERSALIAD, 



CLXXXIII 

" So sin, which grew out of man's first constitution, 

As some stanzas back hath already been sung. 
Hath wrought in this barrel a great revolution, 

And rumbled loud thunder in bilge and at bung. 
But after a while, by its own effervescence, 

'Twill work itself out as it work'd itself in ; 
So what was a stain on the first human essence, 

Will work on itself till it works itself clean. 

CLXXXIY. 
" 'Tis just to imagine some principle, vicious, 

In matter of which the man's structure was made, 
That lodg'd in the blood, nerves, or brain cinneritious, 

Or filter'd all through him, from heel to the head. 
In part 'twas transferr'd, thro' the rib, to the woman, 

The fairest and sweetest of all womankind ; 
Blest Eve, our dear mother, it found ample room in, 

And only the stronger the more 'twas refin'd. 

CLXXXT. 

" 'Twill work itself out howe'er long it has been in, 

But when it will do so, not savans can tell ; 
Yet, if not before, the great work will begin in 

The hearts of God's people who suffer in helL 
As hell grew in Adam, the head of creation, 

Like oaks from the acorns as time roll'd about, 
So man hath hell in him by sheer vegetation— 

And, if it grew in him, may not it grow out ? 

i 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



CLXXXVI. 
" Yes, all will be happy, and tranquil, and quiet, 

Like ocean unus'd to his habit of storms ; 
For sin shall have finish'd the good that 's done by it, 

For good is done by it in infinite forms : 
And then 'twill be seen that all sin and all evil 

Were proper and fit in the great scheme of man — 
That lies, wars and murders, the world, flesh and devil, 

Were fix'd and decreed ere creation began. 

CLXXXVII. 
" Therefore, it is with us a very grave problem, 

Which, virtue or vice, most essential is made ; 
Our preachers do fear it, since oft it doth hobbl' 'em, 

And spoileth, when bungled, a lucrative trade. 
But still it is true, and we should not deny it, 

That sin to the goodness of God giveth scope ; 
The more it abounds, so the more abounds by it 

God's grace or his goodness, to swallow it up. 

CLXXXVIII. 
" Of course it will follow that rebels who sin most — 

Who most love to sin, and in sinning grow old- 
God fullest will fill their capacity inmost, 

Press' d down, shook together, with all it will hold. 
We '11 rise high to heaven, by how deep we fell in- 

To sin, for our depth is the measure of height ; 
By how far we dwelt out, by so far we '11 dwell in — 

By how much our darkness, by so much our light. 



90 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



CLXXXIX. 
a If so (and it is so), we ought to thank fortune 

That sin ever came to the world with its wars. 
Or G-od for his unbending purposes, or tune 

Our harps to the praises of fate or our stars. 
0, sin ! thou hast made our condition propitious ! 

What good to the world is by thee brought about ! 
J ehovah himself, when to heaven he '11 fish us, 

Will get glory by thee he could not without. 

cxc. 

" Men oft are tormented by rats, mice, and weasles. 

Bat who thinks of damning for things of that sort? 
Or, men, women, children, attack' d of the measles. 

Can they be impleaded and mulcted at court? 
Nor can we for sin, by the rules of stern justice, 

Be any more damn'd than for ague or stone: 
Enough for transgressors, enough, saints, for us 'tis 

To bear the affliction — to bear it alone. 

OXCI. 

" But why we were made so, and bound under this curse, 

That sin from diseases should hatch out and grow- 
Some mortal affection in every viscus, 

Each bone, nerve, and muscle — is more than I know. 
We'll now be dismissed : may you honor and cherish 

The word of salvation so graciously giv'n ; 
If not, you shall linger in darkness, and perish, 

And die in your sins, and be turn'd into — heav'n \ JJ 



THE 

UNIVERSAL IAD. 



CANTO VII. 

"Thus once a mechanic, a mere new beginner, 

Wrote this for a sign, that his trade might appear— 
'I follow two trades, I'm a turner and spinner,' 

And 4 all kinds of turning and twisting done here.' " 

Canto VII, 208. 



THE ARGUMENT. 



As the Muses are supposed to be dead, our hero concludeth that 
he can sing without them — his muse being the wildness of his 
subject. He introduceth the subject of the divine foreknowledge, 
with that of Fate and the double will of the Deity : but he be- 
cometh much entangled in these recondite matters. He think- 
eth that God's will of decree is entitled to more deference than 
his will of command. Difficulties of the sophist described. 

He supposeth that the better way to proceed will be, to take the 
Bible as it is, translate the difficult places according to the ge- 
nius of the doctrine, raise a dust, and, if possible, blind the un- 
derstandings of the hearers. Kneeland's translation introduced 
and commended. The imprisonment of Kneeland, by the Uni- 
versalists of Boston. 

Next, our hero offereth his dissertation on faith and works. What 
are good works among Universalists. Piety hath its advantages 
and rewards in this life. Universalism illustrated by the Grecian 
races — a difficulty. Fidelity to God no guaranty of eternal life. 
The meaning of drawing back to perdition, is, the going backward 
to glory. The meaning of the term danger \ according to Uni- 
versalism. Gratitude not necessary to going to heaven, because 
every thing is fixed, so that we need not thank God for things 
that had no other way to be. He forgetteth his creed sometimes, 
and then talks like other men. He promiseth several more can- 
tos, with a book of the whole of them. He concludeth the 
seventh canto. The usual benediction. 



THE 

UNI VEKSALIAD. 



CANTO VII. 

" The Muses are dead ! # but there 's one consolation. 

Old Pegasus, living, still pants for the course ! 
The Muses are dead !* but who wants inspiration 

That rides on a griffin or flies on a horse? 
Who needs inspiration when darkness and wildness, 

And tempest and storm, are the themes of his song? 
I soar 'bove the regions of dullness and mildness, 

Kick home the sharp spur and drive thund'ring along. 

CXCIII. 

"And now the great scheme of eternal foreknowledge 

I open at large on the orthodox host ; 
The weapon is fearfully bright — it is all edge — 

And thousands of slain the keen falchion can boast. 
God knows, and he must know, and always has known all 

The things and events, since creation began : 
All things were decreed, and his wisdom has done all — 

The least and the greatest perfecting the plan. 



* Millennial Harbinger for 1848, p. ISO. 



94 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



CXCIV. 

" Strike out any link from the chain of creation, 

And endless confusion and chaos you '11 find — - 
The animal link, or the link vegetation. 

Or moral, or physical, matter or mind. 
What eye, of created perception, can see to 

The bounds of a subject so deep, so sublime— 
The infinite worth of a gnat or musketoe, 

Or wagtail, or tadpole, discussing its slime ! 

cxcv. 

" God foreknew the whole, but how could he foreknow it 

If 'twere not first fix'd that he might thus foreknow? 
I own I'm perplex' d, and my stanzas must show it, 

And other perplexities, too, they will show ! 
But all will be sav'd ! brethren, see what a plight I 

Am in ! for the God that we serve is not free : 
There must be an attribute superalmighty 

That binds even God what he knows to decree ! 

CXCVI. 

"And not only so, but to make him submit to % 
And fix all events, from invincible gust, 

So strong, there is no other way he can get thro' 't 
But letting things drive on, as drive on they must. 

'Tis foolish to talk, then, of how matters might be, 
Or should be, or will be, in thought or in deed ; 

And you, loving brethren, should never more fight me 

, Till first you have learn'd that the war is decreed, 



THE UNIVERSAL! AD. 



95 



CXCVII. 

* I know it is said, that when anything happens. 

That thing is the index which proves the decrees ; 
For instance, when thieves of a night enter gap-pens 

And run off at once with the mutton and fleece. 
But then what disjointeth this whole air-built matter, 

Is, God's double will of decree and command — 
That often the former opposeth the latter, 

And God is divided ! can both his wills stand 1 

CXCVIII. 

" 'Tis clear as the sun, the decree-will 's the stronger, 

The older, and holds the best right to the day ; 
'Twill last, in the ages of destiny, longer 

Than this one of words, for words vanish away: 
And men cannot break it — they can break the other, 

And do indeed break it, and may when they please, 
And yet go to glory without any pother 

But death — but they cannot annul the decrees. 

CXCIX. 

" But why it should be so, that Infinite Wisdom 

Should tell us our duty and call that his will, 
As if he 'd no other and better will — this dumb 

But deep thing entangles and worries me still ! 
He sure cannot mean we must all do our duty, 

Or fail of the heaven we know he has made 
For faithful and infidel, white, pure, and sooty — 

He means something less than the word he has said. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



cc. 

" But here once again I'm perplex' d and entangled — 

If one of his sentences mean the reverse 
Of what it asserts, all my logic is strangled. 

And all my perplexities grow worse and worse ! 
For, where do I learn all about this decree-will, 

If not in the word-will, my troublesome lot? 
The word-will is Wisdom ; but, can it be, she will 

Allow some parts twisted and other parts not? 

CCL 

" For instance : suppose I should take up those verses 

Which tell of the will that men cannot abuse, 
And give them the turn that we give our discourses 

Whenever we prove that of faith there 's no use : 
This will would, in that case, be just such a will as 

Arminians believe and as Methodists hail ; 
'T would kill the distinction of wills, and be still as 

Far off from the truth as an orthodox tale. 

CCIL 

" How hard is the fate when in reason one rambles, 

And crosses his path in such manners and shapes ! 
How hard from the fig-tree to pluck galls and brambles ! 

How hard from the thistle or thorn to pluck grapes J 
The Bible, from us, is now fated to go forth 

Beversing the meaning of words to mankind ; 
Hence darkness is light, good is evil, and so forth, 

And bitter is sweet, and before is behind ! 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



97 



CCIII. 

" The Book, as it is, we must take, contemplate it, 

And do 'gainst its current the best that we can ; 
Whenever we may, we new-word and translate it, , 

And this we have found an available plan. 
But on this great subject we Ve been brought to feel and 

To mourn the adventure of one of our host ; 
For, when he 'd translated the Testament, Kneeland 

Quite cooly turn'd atheist, and gave up the ghost. 

GCIV. 

" } Tis said by the world, but I know not Kow true 'tis. 

That we prosecuted and put him in jail ; 
But this only shows what delectable beauties 

Keside in our scheme, one that never can fail : 
For if he declar'd (and he did) there is no God 

But nature, the heavens, the sea, and the ground, 
This never can hinder his coming up to God 

When once the great trumpet of Michael shall sound. 

COT. 

" Then may we not use brother Kneeland's translation, 

When it suits us better than that of king James? 
And what if we worship, not God, but creation. 

Or be earthly, sensual, and dev'iish our aims? 
For, such is our system from coccyx to frontis^ 

It takes in the whole race, the worst with the best ; 
Th' eternal salvation that 's given to one, 'tis, 

Without faith or virtue, bestow'd on the rest. 



98 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



CCVL 

" Before I conclude this delectable canto, 

Somewhat that oppresseth and jadeth my mind 
I wish to deliver as faith, and to hand to 

My clerical brethren who preach the same kind. 
Well, then, it is this — I have said (vide passim), 

That faith, as to heaven, can do nothing for 's ; 
Each sinner goes there, for God wills him and has 'im, 

Tho' he believe nothing, or that which is worse. 

CCVII 

" But faith is essential, and more, too, than mere faith, 

If men, in this life, would be happy and pure ; 
For works, too, are needed : it were indeed queer faith 

That crediteth all things, but doth nothing more. 
And therefore we labor as though we were fearful 

Of falling to hell, or not rising to bliss : 
Benevolence prompts us, benevolence careful, 

Not careful for that world, but careful for this. 

COVIIL 

" Our labor consists, not in prayer or devotion, 

So much as in quibbles and quiddles and quirks, 
By which to sustain our distinguishing notion 

Against opposition ; and these are good works. 
Thus once a mechanic, a mere new beginner, 

Wrote this for a sign, that his trade might appear— 
s I follow two trades ; I'm a turner and spinner/ 

And c all kinds of turning and twisting done here 3 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



mm 

u When Greeks for the laurel contend in the races, 

They keep themselves tidy, and temp'rate, and cool 
They know, on agility rests, in those cases, 

The meed of the judge who presides at the goal. 
Not so, as to heaven, not so in religion, 

The sitters and runners, alike, are all erown'd— 
Sit still like a statue, or fly like a pigeon, 

The blessing, in either contingence, is found. 

ccx. 

" The G-reeks run, says Paul, to obtain a mere bubble, 
. Nor can, without running, that bubble obtain : 
The crown is the end of their labor and trouble, 

The star of their hope, the reward of their pain. 
But saints, for a crown of immortal fruition 

Do hope, being pure, when their labor is done — 
? Tis strange the apostle should make that condition, 

When we say they '11 get it who run not, or run ! 

CCXL 

" Says Paul to believers, c Lay up a foundation, 

A good and a sure one, for time that shall come, 
That you may lay hold of eternal salvation, 

Or Kfe everlasting in heaven, your home. } 
But we plan an opposite scheme of detergence, 

The sure-built foundation already is laid, 
And all are upon 't — such a word as divergence, 

Or fall to perdition, should never be said. 



100 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



CCXIL 

a 'Tis true, by their money-love, many are strangers 

To truth and devotion, and dead in their sin ; 
All such are in danger, but theirs are the dangers 

Of that very circumstance which they are in. 
The danger of sickness (such always has been it), 

To be sick ; the danger of death, is to die ; 
The danger of hell, is to be fully in it — 

But how it is so, ask me nothing, or why ! 

CCXIII. 

" If any draw back to the gulf of perdition, 

J Tis true in respect to their temporal state : 
The further we draw back, our juxta-position 

Is trench'd upon heaven by fortune and fate. 
The way is as sure, up to heaven and glory, 

To those who draw back, as to those who go hence ; 
The diif 'rence between them is slight- — rather more a 

Distinction of words than distinction of sense. 

CCXVI. 

" 1 Be faithful till death,' says the Spirit of Jesus, 

'And you I will crown in the kingdom of life ' — 
But that 's a condition ill-suited to please us, 

It gives us no scope for sedition and strife. 
However, we will have, in spite of this promise. 

The blest crown of glory, tho' rebels we die ; 
For God, bound by fate, can't withhold the crown from v 

We '11 have it, while heaven and earth we defy ! 



THE UNIVERSALIAD, 



101 



ccxv. 

" Why should we be grateful for favors and mercies. 

While all things are fix'd and can't otherwise be ? 
Why should we be damn'd for seditions and her'sies, 

As these are all writ in eternal decree % 
And why should we grieve that we are not more holy? 

Why mourn for the actions we cannot avoid ? 
Why pour out our tears over weakness and folly ? 

Why wish that the past had been better employ' d ? 

CCXVI. 

" Sometimes I forget I'm a full Univers'list, 

And find myself blaming the race of mankind , 
Especially that black and piratical curs' d list 

To all the dark deeds of malignity join'd : 
But soon second tho'ts, which are wise, grave and sober. 

Do check the impatience and stop the reproof, 
And Fate, when with questions I pump her and probe her, 

Says, £ Child, 'tis my kingdom, and stand thou aloof ! 5 

CCXVIL 

" Tou must not suppose I have finish'd these matters — 

For several more cantos the public may look ; 
I'll tear orthodoxy to patches and tatters, 

And print the account in a beautiful book : 
Which book shall descend to enlighten the next age, 

When sermons now printed and preach' d are forgot — 
To show all our people, or any perplex' d sage, 

How mankind are sav'd, if they will, or if not 



102 



THE UNIVERSALIAD 



CCXVIII. 

" But now, lest I weary the reader or hearer. 

My Pegasus sweeps in a curve, as before, 
And gently descending, a parachute, nearer 

To earth, sets me off on a block at my door. 
We '11 now be dismissed : may you honor and cherish 

The word of salvation so graciously giv'n ; 
If not, you shall linger in darkness, and perish, 

And die in your sins, and be turn'd into — hea v j n !" 



THE 

UNIVERSALIAD. 



CANTO VIII. 

41 We talk of salvation which God giveth gratis, 

When sin pays to justice the debts due her rules; 
But men of reflection and judgment know that is 
V/ ell nigh the same thing as to own ourselves fools." 

Canto VIII, 237 



THE ARGUMENT. 



After some respite, the hero recommenceth his labors. He reca 
pitulateth. A very perplexing problem introduced — what is sal 
vation, on the scheme of Universalism ; or, what men are saved 
from when they are made to suffer all they deserve for sin. This 
affair is handled with much caution. Several similitudes intro 
duced to illustrate it. The secret is at last told, and the whole 
truth confessed. The propitiation of Christ introduced — a thing 
altogether unnecessary, on the principles of Universalism. Nei 
ther saints nor sinners can sin enough to forfeit heaven — all are 
on the same basis. What effect this doctrine has on the ungod 
ly, when they believe it. 

He giveth an incident illustrative of the tendency of his doctrine — 
a black-leg swears that it is true. Faith defined, and its powers 
exemplified. The partialist doctrine, it is said, maketh maniacs. 
The necessity of tact and management in the proclamation of 
Universalism. Its true nature must be concealed. The devil 
again introduced and defined. Devils, or demons, were diseases 
in the time of Christ. A confession touching the way Univer- 
salism appears from different angles of observation. Everlast- 
ing — its meaning defined and illustrated. Concluding stanza. 
The benediction. 



THE 

UNIVERSALIAD. 



CANTO VIII. 

"And now, having sipp'd of the pure hippocrene, 

Which some may, mistaking, hypocrisy deem, 
I'm ready to soar once again. Nota Bene : 

That all go to glory, is still my great theme. 
I'll make, in this canto, such startling excursions 

As well may astonish the dull orthodox ; 
I'll prove by evasions, or else by perversions, 

God winds us to glory as we wind our clocks. 

ccxx. 

" 'Tis true, this was done in my very first canto, 

But truth, oft repeated, is render' d more plain ; 
And so with our preaching— we tell every man to 

Say over the same thing again and again. 
Not so with the orthodox — they are much worse still, 

And have such vari'ty the truth can't be found ; 
While our track is plain as the tread of a horse-mill. 

We 've nothing to do but to jog round and round. 



106 



THE UNIVERSAL! AD. 



CCXXL 

" We do not believe we must fall in a trench ere a 

Deliv'rance is offer'd, a pardon and peace: 
We suffer our time out in God's penitentiary, 

And- tlien are discharged by a natur'l release. 
And this is the grace that prevails in our system — 

It is grace to suffer as much as we ought ; 
And men bro't to glory (our scheme never miss'd em), 

Are then sav'd from something, but no one knows what, 

CCXXII. 

" To find what it is, I am so perplex' d that I 

Have ply'd every source the great problem to work ; 
As, first, at the 'Star J in the queen Cincinnati, 

And then at the 1 Advocate] Ut'ca, New York : 
But none of our papers, nor Thomas nor Skinner, 

Nor great one, nor small one, can tell what it means; 
That is, what he 's sav'd from who once was a sinner, 

But suffer'd the whole he deserv'd for his sins. 

CCXXIIL 

"Am I sav'd from sin when I've suffer'd the sentence 

That justice decrees? it is plain, this be'ng true, 
The convict in prison, the moment he went thence, 

Was sav'd from that prison by suffering through. 
We 're sav'd from our debts, too, by paying them all off, 

We 're sav'd from our sins by damnation from God ; 
The satisfied sentences swell up and fall off, 

As leeches fall off when they 're sated with blood. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



CCXXIY. 

"And such is the secret our friends will not tell us, 

Will not even try, tho' belabor' d and chid: 
They form a new lodge of peculiar Odd-fellows, 

Who prison the secret and keep it well hid. 
So when a mechanic hath made a steam boiler. 

He pluggeth all crannies where steam may get out 
So Masons are guarded by deacon and tyler, 

That other folks cannot tell what they 're about. 

CCXXY. 

" Perhaps, if the use of a figure I try for, 

I may yet develop the secret at last, 
And thus all our views of salvation decipher : 

Suppose, on your journey, the road to be pass'd 
Were rocky and muddy, uneven and hilly, 

And boggy and dark, and with windings perplex'd ; 
The weather were rainy and windy and chilly, 

And you, soul and body, most sadly were vex'd : 

CCXXVI. 

u Then if, at the end of this wretchedly bad road 

That you had trudg'd over by dint of your shins, 
A friend in barouche driving by you (who had rode 

A better way round to avoid the ravines) 
Should take you up with him in beautiful urnlike 

And well-fitted cab, snug and safe from the wind, 
And glide you along on macadamiz'd turnpike — 

He 'd save you, you see, from the bad road behind. 



108 



THE UNIVERSALIS)* 



CXXVXL 

" This world is a bad road, as every one knoweth, 

'Tis dark, and 'tis crooked, and dangerous withal ; 
The wind of adversity oftentimes bloweth, 

Not only a breeze, but most frequent a squall : 
But when we have suffer 'd as much as we ought to, 

Along the dark way, and have came to the end 
Of what, for our sins, we are sure to be brought to, 

Then Christ steppeth in and becometh oar friend ! 

CCXXVIIL 
" The secret at last, then, as I understand it, 

Is this — there is neither salvation nor Christ 
In all that we teach — for mankind we demand it 

That they go to glory by physical hoist, 
By raising their bodies and making them new ones — 

That the resurrection will do the great deed ; 
But rising delivers us not from the ruins 

Of sin ; hence 'tis plain that of Christ there 's no need 

CCXXIX. 

" The apostle proclaims Christ a propitiation 

Thro' faith in his blood, from the dangers of sin ; 
But that is not true, as a simple narration 

Of reasons and facts will bear witness and win. 
We cannot be cover' d from sin, or be shielded 

From any infliction for sin that is right; 
No propitiation can ever be wielded 

To screen us from paying the ultimate mite. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD, 



109 



COXXX. X 
u What propitiation doth mean., is uncertain, 
f It may mean a covering, defense, or may not; « 
It may have no meaning at all, or a curtain 

Of doubt may involve it and hide it from tho't. 
It surely don't mean that the suff 'rings of Jesus, 

The stripes that he bore as he hung on the tree, 
Can from the punition of evil release us, 

Or set us from sin and its punishment free, 

CCXXXL 

" Therefore, all the infidels, all the believers. 

Are on the same basis, and cannot get off; 
And all the deceiv'd ones, and all the deceivers, 

Cannot forfeit heaven — they can't sin enough ! 
Then shout the glad anthem, yea shout it and sing it, 

In brothel, in bar-room, at card-table, sing I 
Like seed to the fallow we '11 scatter and fling it, 

All over the wide world we '11 scatter and fling. 

CCXXXIL 

" To tell the ungodly they 're now in damnation 
f Perhaps just as deep as they ever will be, 
Draws out the response, c then we love the location, 

We 'd rather be damn'd than sav'd, bondmen than fre& 
If this be the utmost of hell and perdition, 

'Tis easily borne for its pleasure and joy; 
And should it e'en prove an eternal deletion, 

J Twill not very sadly our powers annoy.' 



no 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



CCXXXIII. 
" Once, when I had finish'd this kind of a sermon 

(I saw that it won with the people full well), 
There came, at dismission, a Frenchman or German, 

A black-leg, who hated the orthodox hell, 
And, grasping my hand with affection, said, 1 well, it 

Is now made out fairly,' and chuckled upon it, 
Then added by oath, 1 that 's the way, sir, to tell it, 

We all will be sav'd— I'll be d .'d if we don't! 1 

CXXXIV. 

" I felt some ash am' d that the fellow should say so 

In public, and babble the thing out so loud ; 
Such doctrines obnoxious we find in our way so 

We must, if we can, hold them hid from the crowd 
But still they are true ; yet I think we should shape -e 

In more decent language, if that can be found, 
Lest brethren novitiate remember and ape 'em, 

And run the frail vessel we sail in a-ground. 

ccxxxv. 

"A word on belief: In the Greek it is pistis, 

And fides in Latin, as every one saith 
('Tis no way important, however, 'bout this), 'tis 

Reliance, or confidence, trusting, or faith. 
And faith maketh nothing. Before we believe it 

The thing must exist, or we cannot believe : 
It never created a gift to receive it, 

The thing first existed that we might receive. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. Ill 

CCXXXVI. 
tt Hence, some way it is (but the mode operandi 

Is hidden to me), faith has nothing to do 
With glory, not more than the mode propagandi 

Of all unbelief and impiety too. 
And here I would say, as important addenda, 

If faith 's of no use, then of what use is ours ? 
If doing be useless, then all our agenda ti 

Is vain, and a foolish disbursement of powers. 

CCXXXYIL 
" We know that the partialist orthodox doctrine 

Dementeth poor spirits, whole crowds of day, 
And fills the asylums : by scores they are lock'd thVin — 

But we are moon-stricken the natural way. 
We talk of salvation which God giveth gratis, 

When sin pays to justice the debts due her rules ; 
But men of reflection and judgment know that is 

Well nigh the same thing as to own ourselves fools. 

CCXXXVIII. 
" Therefore, we must study at what point our tact is 

Most needed — then labor to hold it from view 
That there 's no salvation from sin, for the fact is, 

Mankind will abandon us unless we do : 
But while we can please them with words as of honey, 

And put out the fires both of conscience and hell, 
They '11 feed us and clothe us, and pour out their money ; 

And, money ! sweet money ! we love thee too well. 



112 THE UNIVERSALIAD. 

CCXXXIX, 
" In fact, were it not for the salary given 

For preaching the doctrine we argue for now, 
The people might headlong all drive on to — heaven. 

And I would turn farmer and follow the plow. 
But men must not muzzle the mouths of the oxen. 

Or horses, or asses, that tread out the corn ; 
So we gain a living by leading our flocks on 
I To where they would go had we never been born ! 

CCXL. 

" The partialists think there 's a huge ugly devil 

From mankind distinct, of near infinite pow'r — ■ 
The father of lies, and the source of all evil, 

That goeth about seeking whom to devour : 
But that 's a mistake, and the sheerest of humbug, 

As any philosopher knows in a trice ; 
There 's no devil worse than the love of a rum-jug, 

Or gambling, or dancing, or any such vice. 

CCXLL 

" When Satan to Christ did present a temptation, 

No satan was there as distinct from the Lord : 
Christ held a soliloquy, examination 

Of self, as saints often are wont to, by word : 
4 The angels of God,' Satan said, 1 shall bear thee up, 

If from this high temple thy body be thrown f 
That is, Jesus tho't, they will surely bear me up, 

c Lest thy foot,' that 's my foot, { be dash'd on a stone !' 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



113 



CCXLIL 

"And so, too, it was, as our doctrine supposes, 

With Michael, th' archangel, as over the grave 
He mus'd with himself of the body of Moses, 

If he or his tho'ts should the law-giver have : 
The contest was fierce between Michael and Michael's 

Own tho'ts, dispositions, his feelings and fears ; 
i; But when the discussion had travers'd its cycles, 

The angel prevail'd, and hence Moses appears. 

CCXLIIL 

u 'Tis thus we dispose, at a dash, in a moment, 

Of devil and satan, and sweep our sky clear, 
And thank our philosophers for the bestowment 

Of truth which dispels superstition and fear. 
Those gloomy forebodings no longer absorb us — 

Diseases were devils in primitive days ; 
The prince of the devils was cholera morbus, 

Or small-pox, or plague — so philosophy says. 

CCXLIV. 

| The itch and the measles, or whatever humors 

Perplex at the surface, or inwardly fall, 
And warts, moles and pimples, and fungi and tumors, 

Were scarcely call'd devils in those days at all. 
E'en certain diseases much fiercer and sadder, 

Were not, by this term, well defin'd, I allow; 
For, rheums and the gout, and the stone in the bladder. 

Were known by the names that we know them by now. 
8 



114 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



CCXLV. 

"And hence when lie says, that is, when the Messiah 

Affirms that the demons expeli'd, if he please, 
Are spirits, I'm utterly balk'd to tell by a 

Philosopher's tact, why he call'd them disease. 
But he did not speak as a sage or philosopher, 

But simply the peasants and vulgar to suit ; 
Of course what he says we may spread out a gloss over, 

And when it means wrong we can put meaning to J t. 



CCXLVI. 

" Our doctrine appears oft as if it had no face, 

And then with as many as old Janus wears; 
Sometimes it appears as a mask, or a dough-face 

But just what it is it scarce ever appears. 
Sometime 'tis a ghost, or a figure^ or shadow, 

Or, more vapid still, is a shadow of shade ; 
Now it favors the good, then it lets all the bad owe 

An equal hope to it with theirs who 've obey'd. 

CCXLVIL 
" To-day it announceth eternal salvation 
To all, irrespective of character here ; 
To-morrow it deals universal damnation 

' To every offender, in spite of his prayer. 
It talketh of pardon, but never can show it, 
Of mercy, but cruelty stalks in her place ; 
Of joyful adoption, but none of us know it. 
As suff'ring what justice adjudgeth is grace. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



115 



CCLXVIII. 
" I wish, in conclusion, to say but a few things 

That press to be said ere my work I dismiss, 
Such as ought to rank among all the queer new things 

Put forth from a great oratorio like this. 
The word everlasting is writ of the wicked 

And of their destruction ; but still it appears 
That he } s not a scholar at all, but a thick-head, 

Who says that it means more than two or three years. 

CCXLIX. 

" If this were the place to go into the Greek and 

The Latin and Hebrew. I could demonstrate 
Where things everlasting did end ; but to seek and 

Determine it now by the proof, 'tis too late. 
Suffice it to say, when a thing 's everlasting, 

And call'd everlasting, e'erlasting it is; 
It ever remains an establish' d and fast thing, 

As God and his will, and as virtue and bliss 

COL. 

" But when we apply it tq things dark and stygian, 

Things in their own nature compell'd to decrease. 
Or are intermittent (it may be quotidian, 

Like chills, or the fever), but finally cease : v 
It then means no more than the term of the fever 

That ends with the end of its fuel and pain ; 
So run clocks and watches for ever and ever, 

That is, till they run out the length of their chain. 



116 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



COLL 

u I've sung you this canto whelm'd deep in afflictions, 

Because I perceive our whole system absurd, 
A jumble sophistic of self-contradictions 

As false and as fatal as Satan's own word. 
We '11 now be dismiss'd : may you honor and cherish 

The word of salvation so graciously giv'n ; 
If not, you shall linger in darkness, and perish, 

And die in your sins, and be turn'd into— heav'n P 



THE 

UNIVERSALIAD. 



CANTO IX. 

" The Bible runs on in one steadfast direction, 
But just in another the preacher runs out; 
He takes and perverts it from section to section — 
As all preaching 's for, is, to twist it about." 

Canto XX, 268. 



THE ARGUMENT. 



The hero again recapitulateth his labors and prepareth for another 
canto. The regular Muses being dead, he useth a poetical horse, 
by which he is carried into thick clouds and darkness. He 
prayeth for light, but receiveth none* and will have none but 
such as may be imparted according to his system. Remarks on 
prayer. Hell again introduced. Fear of the future a mystery 
to him. Argument from the love of life and happiness. Phre- 
nological developments of a good Universalist head. He hopeth 
that the heads of men, hereafter, may be formed with less cau- 
tion, so as to admit of their believing the doctrine. The force 
of early education. The Bible ill suited to teach Universalism 
to the multitude. He complaineth of his difficulties. How hell 
improveth our moral condition. To the worst men there is no 
hell at all, as they become past feeling, and of course cannot be 
punished in conscience— a sad difficulty. This position exem- 
plified by the case of a youth who became an inebriate by slow, 
but sure, degrees, and finally threw himself away as a sot. How 
this man once acted at a Universalist meeting in Illinois. 

After having thus made sundry confessions, our hero imagineth 
how he would look were he seen on the canvas; as also how 
Universalism would seem, were it possible to give its likeness 
by daguerreotype or otherwise. After some reflections upon 
the superabounding of grace over sin, he defineth grace as the 
suffering of flagellation. Thanks for such grace. The bene- 
diction, 



THE 

UNI VEESALI AD. 



CANTO IX. 

" I who, but of late, the great scheme universal 

Did sing, and did open the niyst'ry full well, 
And show'd that, to save all, God needs first to curse all. 

And populate heaven by unpeopling hell ; 
Did see, with surprise, that some things were omitted 

Which should have found place ere my labors were o'er 3 
And when the omission was weigh' d fully, it did 

Wake up the whole family Aonian once more — 

CCLIII. 

" Or would have awak'd them, but for the dire murder 

Committed upon all the Muses of late ; # 
But as they were dead,* not a nymph of 'em stirr'd her; 

But Pegasus, saddled, unbridled in state, 
Pranc'd out at the impulse, invok'd me to ride him. 

Provided I'd yield him the bit and the rein. 
Permitted the spur, but refus'd me to guide him— 

I mount for aerial adventures again ! 



* See Millennial Harbinger for 1848, p. 120, 



THE UNIVERSALIS). 



CCLIV. 

" Then off from the sides of Parnassus he started. 

In oceans of thought, without bottom or shore, 
Or into dark clouds metaphysic he darted, 

And lost me in doubt, as he had done before. 
And here in the dark, without Muses or music, 

I sing at a venture, queer goblins among ; 
But often, alas, I'm too dizzy or too sick 

To charm thee, kind reader, with truth or with song. 

CCLV, 

" But such as I have in my cloudy adventure, 

I'll give as I got it, or give as I get, 
And call in at last my outstanding debenture, 

And sing myself free of a burdensome debt. 
And, that I could, in the clearness of day-light, 

See things as they are, and, thus seeing, could read ! 
Alas ! I'm envelop'd in fog and mist ! may light 

Flare over the darkness, as now I proceed ! 

CCLVI. 

We 're told that the prayer of the righteous availeth — 

When they ask for light, then the light they shall see 
But I ask for light, and don't get it ! what aileth 

God's will in these last days? or what aileth me? 
The light that I pray for, I pray in submission 

To rules in our system to mankind made known, 
And if in that way the Lord grant my petition, 

'Tis well, but if not, he can let it alone ! 



THE UNIVERSAL! AD, 



121 



CCLVII. 

u I'd rather have no light at all, than have that kind 

Which shows me the devil and orthodox hell ; 
I'd sooner have no eyes, like Homer, who sat blind, 

And sing, as he sung, to the lute or the shell. 
The light which I pray for, is that which will touch men 

With thoughts that God seldom means just what he says: 
We boast, in our ranks, of an army of such men — 

for their clear heads and their masterly ways ! 

CCLVIII. 

" We pray by an impulse — we 're made in that fashion — 

And what we do pray for must somewhere exist : 
We all pray for happiness, for it we dash on, 

Nor can this great end and aim ever be miss'd. 
Respecting where 'tis, we are sometimes mistaken, 

Or seek it in vice, where it cannot be found ; 
But, passing the dark vault of death, we awaken 

And find its fresh fullness for ever abound. 

CCLIX. 

p If any are harden' d in sin, nor will take it 

According to rules by the Deity given, 
} Tis then his good pleasure and power to make it 

Take them as its captives, and waft them to heav'n. 
So, then, ev'ry prayer made for life and for glory, 

An answer shall meet maugre all unbelief: 
The doctrine we teach in detail is, therefore, a 

Sweet comfort to such as the liar and thief. 



122 THE UNIVERSALIAB, 

CCLX. 

" But we do not comfort the thief and the liar 

In stealing and lying, and other such fraud ; 
Nay, purposing thitf, they verge nigher and nigher 

The hottest deep hell of the vengeance of God. 
Indeed, they are in it already while stealing. 

And lying, and so forth, tho' great "be their glee : 
Their worm does not eat out the food of good feeling^ 

Their fire only burns to the temp'rate degree. 

CCLXL 

cp Tis thus, and I take this occasion to show it, 

That hell is no very intolerable place, 
Since men may, most truly, be there and not know it, 

And think their condition no terrible case. 
And sinners in this life most fully are punish'd 

For all their demerit, or pay off all bills, 
Yet, fearing and dreading the future, they run east 

And west, north and south, to avoid coming ills. 

CCLXII. 

" I said, about prayer, that the thing which we pray for. 

Exists somewhere for us, and it we shall share ; 
But dread of the future I find in my way, for 

Why should we so dread if it may not be there? 
Perhaps I may solve the most wayward enigma, 

By saying the orthodox treat it amiss — 
That he 's not a giant at all, but a pigmy 5 

Who quails from the weight of a burden like thii. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



CCLXIII. 

u To love life is natur'l, to love pleasure so too, 

And hence we are destin'd to life and to joy, 
And ills can't befall in the next world we go to, 

Though men fear it may, and avoid it, or try. 
On this hand, our nature demands things supernal, 

Far off in eternity's measureless years ; 
On that, we 're content to make all things infernal 

Pertain to time only, in spite of our fears. 

CCLXIV. 

" But fear still is felt, for it still clings about us 

In spite of the brass of the front we maintain ; 
Again we assert, but again men will doubt us, 

We labor and pant, but we labor in vain. 
Perhaps, if we analyzed men to the bottom., 

We 'd find their phrenology of the wrong kind^ 
Deriv'd from the orthodox sires who begot 'em, 

Their caution too large, organs too small behind. 

CCLXV. 

■"A head that would make a first-rate Culvers' list, 

Is well form'd in front for perception and thought, 
With rev'rence and caution sunk down to the worst lis 

While self-esteem swells out and stands in a knot. 
I can't, by the Muse, well describe other organs. 

Suffice it to say, they must be something rare, 
To make men of straw, to see spectres and gorgons 

Where other men -see things in truth as they ar^e. 



124 



THE UNIVE11SALIAD. 



CCLXVI. 

" 'Tis hop'd that mankind, in a few generations, 

Will have their heads molded in far better shapes ; 
Some wise ones have tho't that the most polish' d nations 

Of men, are the offspring of troglodyte apes. 
Be this as it may, the race now is too cautious 

To readily drink in the doctrine we hold ; 
Their fear of the future still threatens to quash us, 

Tho 7 we are so artful, and vulgar, and bold. 

CCLXVII. 

" So long and so constantly men have been taught that 

There is, after death, a dread hell for the damn'd, 
Th' impression prevails with most people ; but ought that 

To be any reason why we should be cramm'd 
With so crude a notion ( l The Bible, I own it, 

Is fitted to lead the great mass in that way ; 
But prying philosophy, when we are shown it, 

Has other and quite different matters to say. 

CCLXVIIL 

" The hearer perceives that I seem to confess, here, 
The Bible ill suits the great mass of mankind ; 

Well, 'tis even so : hence the preacher puts stress here 
And there, as it suits him, his hearers to blind. 

The Bible runs on in one stedfast direction, 
But just in another the preacher runs out ; 

He takes and perverts it from section to section- 
As all preaching 's for, is, to twist it about. 



THE UNI VER SALT AD. 



125 



CCLXIX. 

" I own, had it been the intention of Jesus 

To teach universal salvation to man, 
The whole could have stood in a few simple theses 

As short as an axiom, as pungent and plain. 
But now we We a record of nations and ages, 

With promises only to th' good and the pure. 
And yet we must make it appear that those pages • 

Preach bliss to the wicked as soon and as sure ! 

CCLXX. 

"Ah me ! who can tell, except those who have tried it, 

The throes of a mind in such difficult case ! 
We first blush for shame, and then lie hard to hide it, 

Till lies have case-hardened both conscience and face ! 
And, having reach' d this point, we call it our sealing 

Or right to pervert the whole Book as we please : 
Of course we are fix'd in a posture past feeling, 

And so settle down in invincible ease. 

CCLXXI. 

"Just here I approach the aforesaid omission, 

To which I alluded a little ago, 
Which leads me to stand to a standing position, 

In order our singular posture to show: 
'The greater the sinner, the greater the sufferer 5 — 

J Tis thus we 5 ve believ'd, sung, and preach,' d it, and writ; 
We let sin reign o'er us till we 've got enough o' her, 

When justice consents to approve and aquit, 



126 



THE TJNIVERSALIAD. 



CCLXXII. 

u Of th' worst kind of sinners — hell hence must so burn 'em 

That not any pleasure in sin they may find ; 
'Twill scorch 'em, and singe 'em, and frighten, and turn 'em 

Away from the evil, and alter their mind. 
While such is the theory, what is the practice ? 

The scheme is revers'd — for the deeper they dive 
In hell, as we call it, the more, as the fact is, 

They joy to do evil, and choose so to live. 

CCLXXIII. 
" Had I any shame left on face or in conscience, 

I'd give up the doctrine at this fatal point : 
I've tried most devoutly to quirk out, but don't see whence 

Another evasion can come into joint. 
The facts are against me ; for sinners find pleasure 

And all sorts of fun in the hell we proclaim : 
The deeper they plunge there, the less is the measure 

Of suff 'ring for sin, and the less is their shame. 

CCLXXIV. 

" For first sins we 're handled severely, much rougher 

"While conscience is tender, or flinchy, or quick, 
Than for a whole thousand when she has grown tougher, 

And cover'd with scales unpervadably thick. 
If then, for a few sins at first, there 's sharp dealing, 

And we feel less keenly the lower we fall,. [iag,' 
When we reach the point which saint Paul calls £ past feel- 

We 're then punish'd none, and there 's no hell at all ! 



127 



He wept for that sin ('mong the cups he 'd got mellow), 
Confess'd it in private, confess'd it in church. 

One sin in his conscience did sting like a scorpion, 
Till he found relief in confession and prayer ; 

But soon after, appetite let the same harpy on 

His conscience, which stung him the second time there, 

CCLXXVII. 

<£ He promis'd and swore to the friends all around him, 

That he would refrain and be guilty no more ; 
Alas, the constrictor had charm'd him and bound him, 

And palsied the strength of the oaths that he swore, 
Shame lingered and died, and remorse ceas'd to utter 

A word that could pierce, or a warning to frown, 
Till day after day he could roll in the gutter, 

The fallen-down sign of the grog-shops in town. 



THE UNIVERSAL IAD. 

CCLXXV. 

;{ Our doctrine at last, then, amounts to this, fairly, 

The greatest of sinners, because they can't feel, 
Escape their punition ; while such as sin barely 

An instance or two, are consign'd to the de'il!. 
But, having said thus much, in gen'ral abstractly, 

I'll give you an instance, a man turn'd to beast; 
The ease of a drunkard will prove it exactly, 

That punishments lessen as crimes are increas'd, 

CCLXXVI. 

" I once knew a young man, a good clever fellow, 
Well rear'd and religious, who fell in a lurch ; 



4* 



128 THE TJNIVERSALIAD. 

CCLXXYIIL 
" Once when I was preaching he stagger' d to hear me, 

He hung by the door till he gather'd my cue; 
The doctrine so pleas'd him he wish'd to come near me, 

And struck for a post at the end of a pew, 
There hung and breath'd heavily (there hung old Tucker), 

There listen'd, approv'd, but, approving, he bawl'd, 
1 Make it out, uncle John, or else /'m a gone sucker* — 

'Twas in Illinois where the folks are so call'd. 

CCLXXIX. 

"Thus, friends, I have made you some honest confessions, 

I've been on both sides of the subjects discuss' d ; 
By episodes, figures, and sev'ral digressions, 

The lines were prolix, but the arguments just. 
My purpose throughout was to curse orthodoxy, 

But some how or other a blessing came out, 
As Balak curs' d Israel by Balaam his proxy, 

Who bless' d ere he knew what himself was about. 

CCLXXX. 

"And now, should I go to an artist and sit for 

My likeness, and have it portray' d to the life, 
What would the production, when finish' d, be fit for, 

But sport to the neighbors, or fright to my wife ? 
Of faces I'd have full as many as J anus, 

Of hearts I'd have none but a shadow or two ; 
What would seem a head would as void be of brain as 

The one on my shoulders, and here brains are few ! 



THE UNIVERSAL! AD. 



129 



CCLXXXI. 

"And if, on the canvas, our scheme he could picture, 

'Twould be the chief effort, the triumph of arts, 
A wild airy creature beyond grasp or stricture, 

A shadow of shade, without body or parts. 
Its down would be up, and its past would be future, 

Its bones be its blood, its before its behind ; 
Its bow'ls be its brains, and its lamdoidal suture 

Be set in the sacrum, its flesh be its mind. 

CCLXXXIL 
" "When Deity worketh, the work is a great work, 

All worthy the power and wisdom divine ; 
J ehovah all-working, of course cannot hate work, 

Or stop till his providence fills his design. 
Hence, sinners sunk down to most damnable places 

In hell's deepest caverns, demand extra force 
To windlass them out — and the hardest of cases 

Will grow but the better by what they were worse. 

CCLXXXIII. 
* Where sin hath prevail' d, and destruction abounded, 

There grace more prevaileth and superabounds ; 
Where chaos hath reign' d with confusion confounded, 

Grace reigns, and to God greater glory redounds : 
But th' grace that destroys sin is this — men must suffei 

Keen sorrow in th' ratio of every offense — 
Grace swingeth a scourge which is harder and tougher 

Than raw-hide applied to corporeal sense. 
9 



130 THE UNIVERSAL! AD. 

CGLXXXIV. 
" Hence, when we thank God for his grace that delivers. 

We thank him for stripes well-directed and laid 
Till th' spirit doth groan and our very flesh quivers 

With twinges that sting us from heel to the head. 
We J ll now be dismiss' d : may you honor and cherish 

The word of salvation so graciously giv'n ; 
If not, you shall linger in darkness, and perish, 

And die in your sins, and be turn'd into— heav'nP 



THE 

UNIVERSALIAD. 



CANTO X. 

"I care not for Moses, or Aaron, or Joshua, 
King David, or Solomon, Daniel, or Job; 
My sins God is bound by his own will to wash away, 
And all other sins of all men on the globe." 

Canto X, 319. 



THE ARGUMENT. 



As Mr. Campbell, of Bethany, Virginia, had reported the Muses 
as slaughtered, our hero invoketh Fate as his only hope for an- 
other canto. He proposeth to give an account of sundry pub- 
lic debates; but first he setteth down the principles of divine 
forgiveness, and showeth that God maketh sinners run the gant- 
let in order to adoption. He claimeth great benevolence for 
Universalists, with whom it is important to have just views of 
the divine government while on earth. 

He then giveth an account of his first discussion with Luther Lee, j 
a celebrated Methodist. The speeches on both sides. The bat- 
tle described. Our friend is foiled, but he reports victory to the 
Universalist papers. His next is with a divine of the Presbyte- 
rian order, with whom he debates all night: but it is found, in \ 
the morning, that the two systems run into, and, as it were, par- 
tklty swallow, each other. The difficulty described. They are I 
drawn apart by the power of money. Our hero then journey- 
eth westwardly, and falleth upon a Reformer in the water, and ! 
the result is, another discussion : but he is so frighted in the be- 
ginning that he flieth from the stage, and reporteth that his 
horse ran away with him. He fortifieth himself for safety, and i 
then, from the rampart, he blackguardeth the reformer, in the 
usual way. The Sabbath generally spent in this service. 

Finally, the hero abruptly defieth heaven and earth to hinder the 
destiny he preacheth for man. He calleth upon all the bad to 
join his song, and concludeth. The benediction. 



THE 



UNI VEESALIAD. 

CANTO X. 

" Fate ! for my theme is so meagre and squalid 

I need all the help inspiration affords : 
Were 't made of material tangibly solid, 

I'd ask not for fire, inspiration, or words. 
But Fate ! in this crisis, do not abandon 

A bard so ill-fated, so curs' d with a theme ! 
I find not a nook in creation to stand on, 

I'm out on Utopia where all is a dream. 

CCLXXXVI. 
u Indeed, Fate, I fear that with all thy suggestions, 

There must be a failure of what I attempt ; 
Alas, who is equal to all the hard questions 

From which this, our doctrine, is never exempt? 
And what mind is able, by dint of mere reason, 

To turn the whole Bible aside from its course? 
For if I adventure with what sense I please on 

Its doctrine, my labors become worse and worse. 



134 



THE TJNIVERSALIAD, 



CCLXXXVIL 
u But I must put down, in the Universaliad, 

Some triumphs of truth o'er the orthodox gangs ; 
But as these are incidents which I have daily had, 

I give but a few of my choicest harangues. 
I've had much discussion all over the country 

With all sorts of men, and hear many a scar ; 
Sometimes I am foil' d, but, when jousted from one tree, 

I fly to another, and urge on the war. 

CCLXXXVIII. 
u In more points than one we resemble the red men, 

Ev'n God, on their principles, deals out his grace ; 
He beats all the living till they are near dead men, 

Then shows them the smiles of his fatherly face. 
Thus, when they take pris'ners, the savages can't let 

Such be of their tribes till they make 'em anew ; 
Then run J em and job 'em with sticks in the gantlet. 

And switch 'em, and burn 'em, and pommel 'em thro'! 

CCLXXXIX. 
" We war upon all things, we war upon mankind, 

On all sects and parties, like Hector, we dash ; 
And any small flaw in their creed that we can find. 

We pick and we stretch it still wider, for cash : 
Yet still we believe them as happy as we are, | 

As learn'd and as pious, as honest and free- 
As sure, too, of heaven, and more sure to be there, 

Not'standing our fault-finding cavils, than we, 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



135 



CCXC. 

"But we are so good, and so kind and benev'lent. 
We wish men to have proper views of God here ; 

We banish each dogma that carries the devil in 't, 
And make the world see things as we see them, clear. 

And hence if mankind won't submit to our super- 
Incumbent fine saddle with blanket beneath, 

We 11 bur every pad, and the girth, and the crupper, 
And ride them thro' hell till they scarcely can breathe, 

i 

CCXCL 

" Intent on my mission, but not knowing too well 

The tactics of war, I set out for a fight — 
I issued my challenge to call up a duel, 

And panted for combat with some valiant knight, 
I studied devoutly to compound and mix thought, 

T' entangle, perplex my opponent, or goad, 
Then drew out my claymore and rush'd, like Don Quixotte ? 

Upon the first wind-mill that thwarted my road, 

COXCIL 

" To. gain an adventure-, I had to stand wider 

The country around, an opponent to see; 
There met me at last a renown' d circuit-rider — 

I afterward found it was old Luther Lee. 
Said I, ' What are you, and by what name is J t given 

To you on this highway to labor and bawl V 
He meekly replied, £ I am going to heaven. 

And by an authority common to all.' 



136 



THE UNIVERSALlAD. 



CCXCIIL 

" 'To heaven !' said I, while upraising my claymore, 

'To heaven you go, eh ? I, too, am bound there — 
Prepare for my lance !' I had no time to say more, 

And struck ! hut alas, the blow wasted in air ! [ing 
Then he : 'My dear friend, tell me, tell the strange mean- 

Of this, your attack, in the King's open way, 
On one who toward heaven is breathing, and leaning 

Along to the close of his life's waning day 1 ? 5 

CCXCIV. 

"To which I responded: 'One reason I strike you 

Is this — you have said you are going to heav'n, 
And I say so too ; and the next, I don't like you ; 

The third, I will strike you — and so on to sev'n P 
I said, and drew threatning ! but he press'd his helmet. 

Adjusted his breastplate, and lifted his shield, 
Then aim'd a dire blow, but 'twas parried and well met, 

When both stood unharm'd face to face, on the field ? 

ccxcv. 

" Then I : 'Knight, I wish not this combat to lengthen, 
Or rob waiting justice of aught of thy pain ; [en, 

But, hark thee ! the cause which, by words, I can strength- 
Demands that thou hear me still further explain : 

Tou are going to heaven, you say — so am I, too, 
But you don't perceive we may go without faith, 

And hold that God will have us him to apply to 
While living, as J esus so frequently saith, 



THE TJNIVERSALIAD. 



137 



CCXCVL 

" 'Now for this offense against reason and grammar, 

And all that we hope in the next world of luck, 
Into your thick skull some perception I'll hammer ' — 

I said, and, so saying, drew vengeful and struck ! 
Alas ! for he dodg'd and avoided the misery, 

And held to my claymore the boss of his targe, 
Then hurl'd a huge rock 'gainst my abdom'nal viscera, 

The weight of my head, which is heavy and large. 

CCXCVIL 

" Then doubling I fell, but I fell not punctillious 

Or nice in my fall, for I fell as I did ; 
I roll'd, and did vomit things acrid and bilious, 

With deep pains and rigors that could not be hid. 
And while I was lying in this bad condition, [sword, 

The brave knight advanc'd, not unsheath'd was his 
'Will you have, captive knight,' then he said, 'a physician? 5 

'Begone !' I replied — and he left at that word. 

COXCVIII. 
"Now, when I'd recover'd from this castigation, 

I made my dispatch to the ' Trumpet ' and 'Star* 
Official and special, so that our whole nation 

Might hear with delight the results of the war ; 
And this was my style : 'Sir, the foe, when I met him, 

Had choice of the ground, and was arm'd to the chin ; 
I found that, to take, it behoov'd me to get him 

Draw out by a feint, and thus circle him in, 



138 



THE UNIVERSALIAB. 



CCXCIX. 

iu lt work'd like a charm ; for, so soon as I'd caught him 

By this master movement, I eharg'd, sword in hand. 
And weaken 5 d him greatly, and finally brought him 

To sue an armistice, and come to a stand. 
We parlied a moment in pithy oration ; 

But, taking alarm at the sheen of my spear, 
He sprang from the field in most wild consternation — 

He fled like a coward, and trembled for fear. 5 

CCC. 

u The editor priest, as he sat on his tripod, 

Upon this dispatch wrote his oracle thus : 
'"We learn a debate has just ended at Bipod, 

With ev'ry advantage in favor of us.' 
Ah me ! had he known I was beat to a jelly, 

And rated and doubled, and thump' d to a kink — 
Had he felt the shock I receiv'd on my belly,* 

He 'd learn' d greater candor in writing, I think. 

CCCL 

" The adventure next in the line of narration, 

Was made with a strict Presbyterian divine, 
Who said that God did, ere the date of creation, 

Choose some men for glory and others decline. 
Then I fought with my creed, and he fought with his own 7 

While words in a torrent incessantly flow'd ; 
We eharg'd on each other, and prov'd a misprision 

Of treason, in each, on the kingdom of God. 



* Rom. xvi, \S. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



13$ 



cccii 

a: While lie rested much on his learning and college, 

And books of divinity long obsolete, 
I pour'd out the chapter we have on foreknowledge, 

Which made him look daggers, and think of defeat. 
And when, spite of fate, my opponent would take up 

The ninth of the Konians, and plunge in the dark, 
I gave him a plenty of Esau and Jacob, 

By reading the notes and the comments of Clarke. 

CCGIIL 

"'But there 's no salvation,' said he, 'in your system, 

Men ne'er were in danger, according to you !' 
c Nor were the elect !' I replied — and they hiss'd him 

Who stood near about — for they saw it was true. 
And thus we continue all day and all night, till 

Low twelve is now past, and yet neither prevails ! 
So wild-cats, I'm told, in the wilderness fight till 

There 's not a thing left but the tip of their tails ! 

CCCIV. 

"As morning had come, and I felt lank and hollow 

From fasting, fatigue, and from sitting up late, 
To me it oecurr'd that the fellow I'd swallow, 

That is, his whole system, and end the debate ; 
But just at the juncture I thought I had got all 

Just ready to act, and was looking to see 
Which end to begin at, he open'd his throttle 

(Yile wretch that he was !), and began swall'wing me ! 



140 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



cccv. 

" I had but a moment of leisure to take rum, 

Or season my breakfast with pepper and salt, 
Then caught him, and swallow' d him up to his sacrum, 

T' where he 'd swallow' d me — when we came to a halt. 
£ Alas !' then he cried, £ what a pickle dimcil 

Is this, to be caught in before human kind ! 
0, tell it not, brethren ! for, if you do, this 'ill 

Deal ruin before me, and ruin behind F 

CCCVI 

" While thus we were lying crook'd round in a circle. 

And deeply inserted, as sung heretofore, 
A man in the crowd question'd thus, c Can it work ill 

To draw them apart by the power of ore'?' 
So saying, he put down some eagles behind us— 

First, some behind him, and then some behind me : 
The attraction was gentle, but strong, and disjoin'd us 

As quick as a thought, and again we were free, 

CCCVIL 

"Ilearn'd, as me thought, by thus op'ning my gall-vents, 

That pure Calvinism and that which we teach 
Do mix well together, are mutual solvents, 

And swallow each other to one-half of each. 
I care not again, then, to plan out a process 

Of war against that which is so much the same; 
I turn my attention and set my proboscis 

Another direction, and seek other game. 



THE UNI VERS ALI AD. 



141 



CCCVIIL 

u I then started west (you '11 remember this stanza). 

On sweet Rosinante, and cheer'd him with song, 
While paging my steps came my true Saeho Panza, 

Astride of his donkey, and higgled along. 
Approaching, at last, the majestic Ohio, 

We found an adventure unsought and untried, 
For, just in the mouth of a creek or a bayou, 

Was one dipping others within the clear tide. 

CCCIX. 

"Said I, { that 's enough ! — we will go to this dipping 1 — 

And down rushing swiftly we trail' d o'er the sand — 
1 1 store for this dipper a merciless whipping, 

So soon as he fetches his net to the land V 
And, when we arrived, he had caught all his fishes, 

His water-snakes, tadpoles, his muscles and snails, 
And had just prepar'd all the good for the dishes, 

Consigning the bad to the sharks and the whales. 

cccx. 

<u Vain man!' then I said, Hell me why this election? 

Are you wiser, better, than God, J udge of all % 
With him, in the future, there '11 be no rejection 

Of any, for mankind will come at his call.' 
4 Why don't they come now?' said this son of the water, 

'The call 's as divine as it ever will be' — 
"Tis not,' I replied, "t will be stronger herea'ter, 

And stronger it must be, vain man, to save thee F 



142 



THE UNI VER S ALI AD. 



CCCXI. 

" I said, and lie look'd, he look'd fierce as a savage, 

I seldom had seen such a keen piercing eye ; 
His voice thrill' d upon me, and threaten'd to ravage 

My storehouse of thought and destroy it, or try ! 
He said (shifting round and preparing for action), 

'You are, I suppose, one of those windy knights 
That traverse the country in quest of detraction, 

And glory in broils, and discussions, and fights. 

CCCXIL 

u 'The way you accost me attests your ill-breeding, 

A second proof shows from your hip-shotten horse, 
A third, and a worse one, appears from your leading 

That squire and his donkey along in your course. 
I speak not against any thing in creation, 

Much less any thing in the semblance of man ; 
But such mules and satyrs possess a formation 

God never intended since nature began. 

CCCXIII. 

u 'I know your descent, you revolting distortion 

Of morals, of intellect, conscience and gra^e ; 
You ghostly, disjointed, and hell-flung abortion 

Of what should have been both a brain and a face 1 
Your mother was darkness, your father was Satan, 

And demons their sisterhood hiss in your ear, 
And sin is your meat, which you put for a bait on 

The hook of damnation, and now angle here I 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



143 



CCCXIV. 

" 'Begone !' As he spoke, hell itself seem'd to open. 

And heaven to shut, and I trembled amain ! 
I thought, theretofore, truth itself could not so pen 

My thoughts in confusion, or addle my brain. 
Instinctive I fled, or it was Rosinante 

That bore me aloft, or by instinct or fear ; 
My race I pursued till I reach' d a safe shantee, 

Good Sancho and his cutting dirt in the rear. 

cccxv. 

* Well, there we entrench' d and made fortification 

Of breast-work and head-work, and built a strong tow'r 
By wind-work and flesh-work, and anti-damnation, 

And all other works of the same class and pow'r. 
And when we had finish' d, I mounted the rampart 

And taunted the man of the watery trade — 
I thought, of salvation, 't was rather a damp part. 

And damp the disciples new born — and I said : 

CCCXVI. 

w 'Hail, man of the waters ! mortal uncommon, 

What oceans of thought breed their storms in thy head] 
Thy pedigree tell me ! what is thy cognomen? 

From whence is thy lore? and what books hast thou read2 
Art thou the great tree of the fable — the bramble 

Which e'en a whole forest consented to crown? 
Or is it thy pride to be led by a camp-bell 

O'er deserts of thought? or in rivers to drown? 



144 



THE UNIVEE3ALIAD. 



CCCXVIL 

<u 'Tis said of the Catholics, when they want salmon 

To fast on in Lent, that great season divine, 
They cast in the river a shoulder or gammon, 

And then draw it out by a hook and a line : 
Thus you, to the fountain of regeneration, 

Commit all the trash you can get to confess ; 
You take them in damn'd, bring them out in salvation* — 

But, 'tis gammon-salmon full often, I guess.' 

CCCXVIII 
" Thus day after day, but especially on Sunday, 

I mock'd at the man to create him a hell, 
Because I'm persuaded, most surely, that one day 

We '11 both meet in heaven, and get along well. 
But, till we 're dismiss' d from this dull sphere diurnal, 

Where strong passions rule, and where prejudice reigns, 
We must stir the dregs of old Tart'rus infernal, 

And keep them in motion to quicken our pains. 

CCCXIX. 

" I care not for J esus, I care not for Peter, 

I care not for Matthew, Mark, Luke, John or Paul ; 
I care not for God the Creator, or creature 

In heaven, or earth, hell, or ocean, or all. 
I care not for Moses, or Aaron, or J oshua, 

King David, or Solomon, Daniel or Job; 
My sins God is bound by his own will to wash away, 

And all other sins of all men on the globe. 



THE UNIVEPwSALIAD. 



145 



CCCXX. 

* But how he will do it, is none of my business. 

Although I essay' d it in foregoing rhymes. 
And reason' d so deeply I felt a strange dizziness 

Which threaten' d my brain with a demon at times : 
This mystical subject I choose to lay over. 

And henceforth for ever to let it alone ; 
We '11 know more about it when death, the great drover. 

Shall huddle us onward to regions unknown. 

CCCXXI. 

"Come, then, all ye murderers, liars, blasphemers, 

Ye robbers and pirates, a merciless throng ; 
Ye hypocrites all, and ye all, filthy dreamers, 

Rejoice in my doctrine, and join in my song ! 
Caligulas, Neros, and ev'ry vile Judas, 

Ye parents who murder your daughters and sons, 
Ye patricides, matricides, your hope 's as good as 

The hope of saint Paul, or saint Peter's, or John's. 

CCCXXIL 

" I've prov'd this full often in many a discussion, 

And seek not again to evince it to you ; 
But when I had done it, I felt not the blush on 

My cheek, tho' I knew the whole thing was untrue ! 
We '11 now be dismiss'd : may you honor and cherish 

The word of salvation so graciously giv'n ; 
If not, you shall linger in darkness, and perish, 
And die in your sins, and be turn'd into — heav'n !" 
10 



THE 

UNIVERSALIAD 



CANTO XI. 

44 But how can we suffer, while pride is within us, 
The shame and confusion which bicker and burn, 
When those vile Reformers uncover and skin us, 
Without skinning them when it comes to their turn." 

Canto XI, 356. 



THE ARGUMENT. 



Our hero having fled from the stage of discussion, prepareth to 
write a letter to his antagonist. A copy of the letter is here re- 
corded. Its contents. Preliminary stanzas, in which he giveth 
advice to his opponent. The Muses being dead, he apologizeth 
that this canto will be prose. The letter then commenceth. He 
askethfrom what source the new light of the Reformation is de- 
rived. The translation of Campbell, Macknight, and Doddridge, 
with emendations by Alexander Campbell, introduced. The 
forth-coming translation and notes of A. Campbell mentioned. 
Of Commentaries in general. Was there need of a new version 
of the New Testament 1 Reformers believe the Bible as they un- 
derstand it, like others, according to him. A sectarian leader 
described. A creed defined. How all Christians may be one. 
No one man can make a creed, nor can a council of men. Saints 
are like planets in their orbits, each one has his own track 
Every human creed must be wrong at some point. A difficul. 
ty in which the hero findeth himself. 

From the translations and commentaries of the Reformation, he de- 
scendeth to the hymn-book, and attempteth to prove that there 
is the same necessity for making and using a prayer-book. This 
subject ingeniously argued by him, as much, however, to his 
own discomfiture, as to that of others. 

He apologizeth for going out of his way to attack others, from the 
fact that he can no longer defend his own religious creed. 
Having himself been turned naked before the world, he trieth 
to make all others appear so. He confesseth how hard it is to 
confess error or ignorance, and concludeth the eleveth canto. 
The benediction. 



THE 

UNIVERSALIAD. 



CANTO XI. 

" Now, when I had finish'd my fortifications. 

The moat, and the breastwork, and wide embrazure, 
Th' abattis and batt'ries, and circumvallations, 

And felt both myself and battalion secure — 
I purpos'd a warfare of rigor and stringence 

'Gainst him of the waters, to try him again, 
That, if I should fail in the aim of sweet vengeance, 

I could but at last retrogress to my den. 

CCCXXIV. 

"And though my chief fame is the fame of a fighter. 

As you, gentle hearers, are duly aware, 
Yet, having some name as a printer and writer, 

I did, first of all, an epistle prepare, 
And sent it to Rabbah, the city of waters,* 

The stable of camels,! to put under saws 
And harrows of iron| her sons and her daughters, 

Or run them thro' brick-kilns for breach of the laws. 

* 2 Sam. xii, 26. t Ezek. xxv, 5. * 2 Sam. xii, 30, 31. 



150 



THE TJNIVERSALIAD. 



cccxxv. 

" The Moses aforesaid, who scar'd Rosinante, 

And made him run off from the battle his best 
(For that 's the true reason I left for the shantee), 

Lives here, and to him was the letter address'd. 
The letter itself is my happiest poppy, 

And all the best things I have sung are in it ; 
? Twas writ for reprisals, and here is a copy 

In words, points, and figures that follow, to wit: 

CCCXXVL 

" 'My lord ! — for in this style all nations have kept tune 

With heros, and princes, and nobles, and gods— 
My lord ! thou descendant of Terra and Neptune, 

Thou last mortal lord of the rivers and floods ; 
When for the first time I resolv'd to address you, 

I thought of returning but good for your ill, 
And, as we are going to heaven, to bless you 

With words only sweet — but I have not the will. 

CCCXXVIL [tl g 3 
« <We 're made with strong passions, and these oft will rule 

And anger will burn when its fuel is dry ; 
And oft it takes months, or e'en longer, to cool us, 

The furnace so hot, and the flame is so high. 
But should we indulge for a season our passions, 

Will God always damn us for be'ng what we are? 
Our appetites claim their appropriate rations, 

And feed on what providence justly may spare. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



151 



CCCXXVIIL 
u 'But yet with this plea I will not buy indulgence 

To stand far aside from the plain Christian rules, 
Or give to my feelings a wordy divulgence 

To deal in the grubbstreet of blackguards and fools : 
But as, when we met, you appear' d to despise all 

The faith I do hold, all I said, or could do, 
I'll now sail with letters of marque and reprisal, 

And capture the contraband goods upon you. 

CCGXXIX. 

" 'My lord, I have tried, in the book I have written, 

To tell all our doctrine, tho' threaten' d with wrath ; 
And this I will do till I finish, if bitten 

By every vile reptile that crawls in my path ! 
And you, ere you flung to the breezes your banners, 

Should have believ'd fully, and fully obey'd : 
Your creed is a good one, but what are your manners? 

Alas, how your heart is in debt to your head ! 

cccxxx, 

K 'You ought to be honest and candid as I am, 

Confessing your sins and, confessing, reform ; 
And when your great leaders do stumble, to try 'em 

By rules apostolic, defying the storm. 
But as such morality seemeth to mar you, 

Or is too averse to the sect you define, 
My lord, let me now your defects confess for you, 

And place them in column just opposite mine. 



152 



THE UNWERSALIAD. 



CCCXXXI. 

" 'My best shall be done in the forthcoming stanzas. 

And all I shall say I suppose to be true ; 
I shall assert some things not extravaganzas 

That may appear credible even to you. 
But leaving the preface I come to the volume, 

The prologue gives place to the subjects of verse ; 
I set down the facts in detail, and will foll'w 'em, 

Or trace them along in a regular course. 

CCCXXXII. 
" 'But as a great critic of late did the obit 

Of all the nine Muses thro 7 college disclose,* 
Of course the whole public and you must be so bit 

As to find this whole canto is nothing but prose. 
And you, my lord, kill' d 'em (what work diabolical !), 

And dried up their fountains (how savage the deed !) 
All but a few drops that I find in a follicle, 

Just barely enough to give strength to proceed ! 

CCCXXXIII. 
" 'Then, firstly, my lord, as you make, in these last days. 

Great boasting about the new light you possess, 
What more d' ye enjoy, or can show, than in past days 

Whole multitudes had, but who Boasted much less? 
Or does your light shine from a flaming translation 

By Doddridge, Macknight, and another or so ? 
Permit me to give you some true information — 

Long since those men liv'd. generations ago. 



* See Millennial Harbinger for 1848, p. 120. 



THE XJNIVERSALIAD. 



153 



CCCXXXIV. 
" 'Or does your light shine out from those emendations, 

The tapers suspended in Bethany's shop, 
The notes and critiques, and close-link'd alterations 

Of which there 's no prospect they ever will stop % 
My lord, the book 's made up of scraps and of patches 

Of other men's labors whose sect you despise, 
With here and there put in (so notified) batches 

Of new-fashion'd words that do all modernize. 

cccxxxv. 

" 'And such is the book you have purchas'd and paid for. 

And yet will not carry, nor from it will treat : 
It might be a puzzle to tell what 'twas made for 

That has in one half an age 'come obsolete. 
As this one is dying, prepare for a new one ! 

A new one is coming with comments and notes : 
'Twill be the most finish' d, of course the most true one, 

And least interdotted with black monkish motes. 

CCCXXXVI. [ter? 
" 'But who would have thought, twenty years since, or la- 

That you, then at war with the whole world around. 
And charging, so led, on each past commentator, 

Could now, in your leader, another have found ! 
Reformers, I know, should progress in their knowledge, 

But, when their progression is back toward their start, 
'Tis due, I maintain, to the church and the college, 

To make them confess it, or else make them smart. 



154 THE UNIVERSALIS 

GCCXXXVIL 
" <I know that no sane mind objecteth to comments, 

Since even the worst ones do offer some good ; 
But he who, at one time, a war 'gainst 'em foments, 

And writes them at others, becomes rather rude. 
He says to the world, a J'm the judge of such matters, 

I hold best author' ty to study and write !" 
While on many subjects we know that he smatters 

As much in the dark as all others at night. 

CCCXXXVIII. 
" 1 There was no demand for another translation — - 

The most that was needed were scholia or notes 
Put into the margin, the interpretation 

Of difficult words, by a few simple thoughts. 
In such way as this, had you manag'd your teaching, 

Defeating suspicion of new things and strange, 
The plan had been better than versions, and preaching 

Had done greater good in a more public range. 

CCCXXXIX. 
" 'The new one to come is the grand superfetate, 

The notes and reflections decipher the sense; 
'Twill serve the "Disciples 3 ' for ages to eat at. 

And food for a sect is derivable thence. 
'Twill mark them distinctly, perhaps even name 'em— 

A name they must have to immortalize him, 
Tho' now it is hard to lasso 'em or tame 'em, 

Or make them succumb to a reasonless whim. 



THE UNIVER SALT AD. 



155 



CCCXL. 

" 'The last version may, to the spirit and letter, 

Be true to the authors interpreted there ; 
And I think it will ; but, still will it be better 

At last than the old one that all men revere ? 
So much, then, on versions. The Bible, you tell us 3 

"The old-fashioned Bible" your creed is, alone, , 
While o'er this assumption you blow like a bellows, | 

Or rather a horn that with clamor is blown. 

CCCXLL 

" 'But you, like the sect'ries, upon whom you brand it 

As matter of sin, and demand a reform, 
Believe in the Bible, as you understand it, 

And think yourself happy and doing no harm. 
Have you, then, a leader infallible ? futile 

And vain is the thought, if to mortal you look ! 
If there 's such a man, you can't know all that 's true till 

He preach his last sermon, or print his last book. 

CCCXLII. 

" 'Alas for the pride both of place and opinion, 

A worm is exalted, and swells to a god ! 
"When once a sect-maker hath got the dominion, j 

He wields like a monarch the scepter and rod. I 
Should any one rise up and honestly differ 

On points by that master made out and explain'd, 
Not pike-heads are harder, nor bayonets stiffer, 
* Than that master's will, and it must be maintain^. 



156 



THE UNIVER SALIAD. 



CCCXLIIL 

iUU I am the great man," he exclaims, "I am Luther — 

I'm boss of this job, and will choose who may aid !" 
So runs the decree ; then he may preach the truth, or 

Preach falsehood, the sect is defin'd and is made. 
He writes in a book, or he writes in a paper, 

When all the amount is distill' d to a creed : 
And all other light is but moon-light or taper, 

And all other books are unworthy to read. 

CCCXLIV. 

" 'My lord, if you ask what 's a creed ? I define one 

To be, not the Bible, but what we perceive 
The Bible to teach : when we have a divine one, 

The Bible's true meaning is what we believe. : 
But can we imagine that any one mere man 

Infallibly knows, and the Book understands? 
If so, let us learn most devoutly to fear man, 

And bow, soul and body, to priestly commands. 

CCCXLY. 

" 'My lord, if no one man may dare make a symbol, 

Because his perceptions perchance may be wrong, 
Before a whole council of priests, shall we tremble 

And seek the unerring the erring among ? 
What then shall we do to promote the right union, 

While men are so various 1 can all become one ? 
My lord ! look aloft and believe ! see in tune yon 

Whole system of worlds that revolve round the sun ! * 



THE UNIVERSALTAD. 



157 



CCCLXVI. 
" 'Now, let us suppose any world in the system 

So foolish to make the demand as a churl. 
That God should coerce all the rest, or enlist 'em 

In that planet's orbit to tumble and whirl: 
This doctrine supposes one primary planet, 

And that all the others must follow its trace, 
Revolve around it as attendants, or man it 

With servitude prompt, as it flares along space. 

CCCXLVIL 
" 'My lord, every saint is a planet in orbit, 

That orbit his own, his own track round the Sun ; 
Nor dares any other to cross or disturb it, 

And hence the whole church, thus provided, is one. 
Our Sun is unerring, but we are in error, 

Each in some degree, or in tho't, deed, or word — 
The views of one man are the creed ? my demurrer 

I promptly oppose, for the thing is absurd. 

CCCXLVIII. 
" 'The creed maybe wrong, nay, in something it must be ; 

While good men, I own, may be more right than wrong: 
Hence there is no safety for us but to just be 

What Grod has commanded, and labor along. 
With weakness and error salvation consisteth, 

Provided the heart be both honest and true ; 
The errors are cancel 5 d of him that enlisteth, 

His weakness forgiven, his debts never due. 



158 THE UNIVERSALIAB. 

CCCXLIX. 

K £ My lord, you perceive I have got in a hobble- 
In warring 'gainst your creed, I've jostled mj own ! 

But, 'tis no great matter — I sputter and squabble 
To suit the occasion, and that is well known. 

We have not, like creed men, a great world of trouble 
'Bout what to hold fast and 'bout what to let fall ; 

For faith, hope, and charity, form but a bubble, 
As men will be sav'd who dispense with them all. 

CCCL. book 
w f Next, leatfing your creed-book, I come to your hymn- 

(And hymn-books attest the existence of sects), 
You '11 own, I imagine, 'tis rather a slim book, 

Imperfect and feeble in many respects. 
? Tis alter'd from Watts, and from Stennett, and Rippon, 

And Doddridge and Steele, and from even Tom Moore, 
With here and there sprinkled, or tack'd a small slip on, 

From laureate poets near Bethany's door.* 

CCCLL 

" c Now you, that stand up for the Bible and show it 

All over the world as your rule and your creed. 
Cannot yet proceed till you 've charter'd a poet 

To gather up hymns which the sect'ries have made. 
But one man, of course, has the right to collect 'em, 

Because he knows best how to lead or to drive ; 
And when other books do appear, you reject 'em, 

Lest thunder should grow from the hum in the hive. 



* Hymn-book, Preface to part II, p. 6. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD, 



159 



CCCLII. 

" 'My lord, on what text in the Law or the Prophets, 

Evangelists, Acts, or Epistles, is plann'd 
A hymn-book, or note-book, that yieldeth all of its 

Proceeds to a college, or one private hand? [apostle; 
"Sing, sing!" saith the prophet; "Sing hymns," saith th J 

But what shall we sing? sing Old Hundred or Mear? [all, 
What hymns sung the ancients ? the Psalms ? we have lost 

Their songs, if king David's songs serv'd them not there. 

\ 

CCCLIII. 

u 'If, when the apostle says "sing," you derive a 

Commission for making such books as you need, 
When he commands "pray" you must not then pray viva 

Voce, but by written pray'rs pray as you read. 
Episcopal Protestant brethren have their book, 

And sing and pray, both, from the matter in print: 
You sing from a hymn-book, but won't have a prayer-book, 

Hence, touching your conduct, there J s no reason in J t. 

CCCLIV. 

"'But all men, you say, are not born to be poets, [rest: 

Hence some must make psalms that will serve for the 
Well, that 's even so ; but, my lord, we all know it 's 

The same touching prayer, as you '11 find by the test. 
All mankind do pray, when upon them are pack'd ills, 

Without written forms, e'en their groan is their prayer; 
And so, too, they sing, without meter or dactyls, 

When merry, and pour out their souls upon air. 



160 



THE UNIVERSALIAB. 



CCCLV. 

" 'My lord having tendered a mild castigation 

That makes just as much against me as 'gainst you, 
I now leave it with you, a sure indication 

Of what you shall feel when I next write. Adieu V 
And such is the plan we devise, and adopt it — 

When beaten and silenc'd, and pinn'd to the wall, 
We spare not the sect we oppose, till we 5 ve chopt it, 

And sprinkled and soak'd it with pepper and gall. 

CCCLVI. 

" I know we are bound, by the rules of discussion, 

To prove our own doctrine, if that can be done, 
And not suffer bile to escape, or to gush on 

The person of others, but let them alone : 
But how can we suffer, while pride is within us, 

The shame and confusion which bicker and burn, 
When those vile Reformers uncover and skin us, 

Without skinning them when it comes to their turn? 

CCCLVII. 

" 'Tis hard to say nothing, when we are defeated ; 

'Tis hard to confess either ign'rance or crime ; 
3 Tis hard, in debate, to be choak'd down and seated — 

All which I find true at thjs stage of my rhyme ! 
We '11 now be dismiss' d : may you honor and cherish 

The word of salvation so graciously giv'n ; 
If not, you shall linger in darkness, and perish, 

And die in your sins, and be turn'd into — heav'n!" 



THE 

UNIVERSALIAD. 

CANTO XII. 

" The whole of our system I now have gone over, 
And turn'd it and view'd it at every point; 
Wherever I could I have put on a cover, 
And, where I could not, it appears out of joint.' 

Canto XII, 397. 



II 



THE ARGUMENT. 



The twelfth canto introduced. The second letter of the hero to 
the man of the waters. The Reformation periodicals briefly 
noticed, with their editors. The liberty of the Reformers; the 
preachers — the leaders of the public mind among them. De- 
monology— why sinful. Why Reformers have so many church 
quarrels ; the vagrant preachers of that order, their vanity, &c. 
A conceited young minister described. The design of the 
churches not carried out by the Reformation. The fellowship 
wherein defective. Too much love of the world among the 
churches. The world never can be converted till a better order 
and greater liberality are introduced. Defects not named are 
passed over. The name of the "Disciples' Church 99 considered 
at large ; the absurdity of such a name. The term disciple de- 
fined, and the true doctrine of the name asserted. The end of 
his second letter. 

He receiveth no answer to his letters, but feareth he may be met 
in debate on them. What may be gained by the Universalist 
mode of discussion. He proposeth to show, finally, the tenden- 
cy of the doctrine upon those who believe it, and upon such as 
suppose it may be true. A case of murder in exemplification. 
Universalism breaks up revivals, and how. A case of seduction 
in point. Concluding remarks. He anticipateth the labor of 
the critics, but defieth them. He committeth his book to the 
world, and pronounceth the final benediction. 



THE 

UNI VEESALIAD, 

CANTO XII. 

"Again, loving people, and now for the last time, 
I mount ramaumptum to greet you once more ; 

For what do we live but to kill time with pastime ? 
Our glory will dawn when our follies are o'er. 

Fate ! iron Fate ! thou great god universal, 
Now favor thy bard with some surrogate muse ; 

0, give his last canto a happy rehearsal, 

In spite of that obit proclaim' d in the news !* 

CCCLIX, 

"Now, having dispatch'd the afore-nam'd epistle, 
In which, not the half I intended, was said, 

1 sent him another one, tougher than gristle— 
The latter was writ ere the former was read, 

The second began where the first terminated, 
Resuming the thread of my caustic review ; 

What then was omitted, is now fully stated, 
The following copy intended for you : 



* Millennial Harbinger for 1848, p. 120, 



164 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



CCCLX. 

" 'Then, thirdly, my lord, I descend to your papers, 

But, ah, who can count the grandiloquent host ! 
What scribe can record all the freaks and the capers 

Your editors cut, or the triumphs they boast? 
You number, perhaps, about two hundred thousand, 

As members of church, in the United States, 
And have twenty papers to feed and to house, and 

To beg for—but most of them go to the fates ! 

CCGLXI. 

" 'The king of the pamphlets is fix'd in the center, 

The subjects are plac'd in their orbits about ; 
And should any new one the monarchy enter. 

It shines by the king's light, or else it goes out. 
When Thomas remonstrates, he falls ; and when Shepard 

Would think for himself, he is soon better taught : 
Each cub independent is flay'd, and then pepper'd— 

He must be an echo, or he must be naught. 

CCCLXII. 

" 'The editors, then, must all stand to their places, 
And seek for their bread where their bread may be had : 

So horses, well train' d, pull and tug in the traces, 
* Nor flinch from the track, howe'er boggy and bad. 

"Glee, gee!" says the driver— then Tom, Dick, and Harry 
Curve round to the right, for e'en that must they know : 

u Hoy, hoyV when he speaks they do both pull and carry — 
They stop at his beck, at his bidding they go. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



165 



CCCLXIII. 

K 'And yet you are free^yes, a wondrous free people. 

As free as thy subjects, Geneva or Dort ; 
As free as the subjects of monarchs, who keep well 

Or think with the thoughts of the people at court : 
As free as disciples of Luther or Wesley, 

As free as the taciturn foli'wers of Fox ; 
As free as they can be who follow expressly 

The will of one man as the rule orthodox ! 

CCCLXIV. 

" 'So free a folk are you, when Challen and Burnet, 

And others, attempted, a few years ago, 
A Bible Society, aiming to turn it 

To the great advantage of mankind below ; 
The thing would not work, any way they could fix it, 

Though often they strove with their burden to rise : 
While they 're free and make, he is free, too, and kicks it. 

Then over the little thing tumbles and dies ! 

CCCLXV. 

" 'My lord, you exult in your eloquent preachers. 

And deem them the best in the nation, by far ; 
Indeed, I allow that you have some good teachers — ■ 

But why do so many on each other war 2 
No long while ago (but this case is not latest) 

There was a contention 'tween two, which began 
Your great reformation, or who should be greatest, 

And to a sad terminus that matter ran, 



166 



THE UNIVERSAL! AD. 



CGCLXVI. 

" 'How sweet is renown ! as of money the jingle. 

It pleaseth the ear, and ambition doth feed : 
Your leader is Luther, and killefch his Zwingle — 

Melancthon stands by and approveth the deed ! 
J Tis now, I believe, pretty fairly decided, 

Your leader u new truths," if he will, can disclose ! 
Who founded your church? he says, "Father and I did, 3 

And he that dares doubt it is smit on the nose ! 

CCCLXVII. 
" 'Great master is he of the science of demons, 

The proof in his doctrine of demons we read ; 
And when he defineth, we fancy we see men's 

Bad spirits departed, those devils indeed. 
These souls of bad men, then, incited by Satan, 

Whole legions at once, hov'ring round in the air, 
Are forc'd into live men possess'd, and the gate on 

The whole tribe is shut to imprison 'em there, 

CCOLXVIII. 
" £ But Paul writeth plainly, it is a bad token 

To pry into devils, as some he knew would; 
Because such discourses, if written or spoken, 

Do usher the author to bad neighborhood : 
Men drink of the spirit of their occupation ; 

Hence, he that stirs devils with pitch-fork or pole, 
Is apt to contract somewhat of their damnation, 

As colliers are blacken' d who labor in coal. 



* See Millennial Harbinger, passim. 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



CCCLXIX. 

" 'Too often your members, the sister and brother. 

Are so prone to fight, to rejoice in a storm, 
That, when there 's none else, they will fight one another, 

And raise up the devil and stop the reform : 
And preachers, who ought to rejoice in co-labor, 

And in the fair fame of their brethren in gown, 
Do often not love, but hate, rather, their neighbor, 

And plan secret methods to nibble him down. 

CCCLXX. 

" 'Some stroll o'er the country as general spongers, 

Disgusting mankind with some penny device; 
While others are adipose loafers and loungers, 

Who can't take a hint, tho' administer'd twice ! 
Still others there are, but more tidy and buoyant, 

Who practice phrenology, bump after bump ; 
And if they can find an impressive clairvoyant, 

They learn every science at hop-step-and-jump ! 

CCCLXXI. 

" 'My lord some there are who are very conceited, 

Who mimic their master in action and brogue, 
Not knowing sufficient to know they are cheated, 

Who thus affect greatness in grave synagogue. 
And some I have known, who are more than half crazy, 

And others steam-doctors and mesmerists wild; 
While others turn preachers because they 're too lazy 

To work in support of a wife and a child. 



168 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



CCCLXXIL 

" 'This host, for the most part, the boy or the bishop, 

Is charg'd for the combat, or pants for the fight ; 
He chops all ." the sects " to a merciless dish up 

Of hash het'rodoxical, black as the night. 
"Sic transit, sic transit /" he cries, "gloria mundi — 

I shake all 6 the sects ' o'er the crater of hell : 
Sic transit, sic transit ! I've made salmagundi 

Of all the defections, and pickled 'em well !" 

CCCLXXIII. 

" 'My lord, you have told us the churches are set for 

The light of the world, to convert it from sin ; 
For this end they meet, this they always have met for — 

But when, where, and how, does the conquest begin ? 
The poor must be fed, and the orphan and widow ; 

The Gospel be preach' d to the Gentile and Jew ; 
Th' apostles have taught us the first churches did owe 

All this to mankind— and all this you must do. 

CCCLXXIY. 
" 'My lord, are you doing ? my lord, have you done it 1 

Where 's this " ancient order " in all your domain ? 
When did you begin 1 or where have you begun it ? 

Come, point to the facts which your posture maintain! 
Some funds have been rais'd for the church and the college, 

And some for the Gospel, and some for the poor ; 
But what has been done to impart divine knowledge 

To thousands in darkness and death at your door ? 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



169 



CCCLXXY. 

u 'You have in your churches the weekly Koinonia, 

The fellowship call'd, but alas for the times ! 
5 Tis rather a slow way to gather up money, a 

Quite slow way, indeed, to collect even dimes. 
The rich, from the proceeds of traffic and barter, 

Walks up to the box with a dime for his load ; 
A servant advances and puts in a quarter, 

Supposing that less were insulting to God. 

CCCLXXVL 
" 'How long will it take, by your fellowship dribblings, 

Unequal, unjust, and disgraceful, and bare, 
To conquer the world ? and how many such fibblings 

Will make it a truth you have no more to spare? 
Now, if you believ'd there 's a hell and a devil 

To dread, and a glorious heaven to hope, 
You 'd learn to do well, you would cease to do evil ? 

And give to the Gospel its money-bent scope. 

CCCLXXVII. 
" 'From one sin to others, my lord, I could go on, 

And show that you do even less than " the sects : n 
Your stinginess, apathy, world-love, and so on, 

Do prove you behind them in many respects. 
The Jew had the law, but rejected the Gentile, 

So you have the truth, but do little but prate — 
But as, on this topic, I've said what I meant, I'll 

Advance to another, and leave you to fate. 



170 



THE UNIVERSAL! AD, 



GCCLXXVIII. 
M 'The name of your church is now written, a caution 

To all other sects from the sect-making throne ; 
The softest, and greenest, and sickliest, squash on 

The squash-vine sectarian that ever was known ! 
"Disciples 1 Church!" whew ! what a name for the kingdom! 

Avaunt, ye small fishes, and scuttle your tails ! 
Ye mermaids and syrens, henceforth sing, but sing dumb. 

Deep muffle your strings in the presence of whales ! 

CCCLXXIX. 

« t "Disciples' 1 Church /" fly, all ye Baptists and Quakers ? 

Revoke, Presbyterians, your men-deriv'd names ! 
Ye Methodists, south and north, Mormons and Shakers, 

Crawl out of your snake-skins, and leave 'em to flames ! 
Your church-name can't rise from a doctrine or office, 

Or circumstance, man's name, not e'en from th 5 Twelve's; 
But here is a people whose reason so rough is, 

It puts upon Christ's church a name of themselves S 

CCCLXXX. 

aui Disciple" my lord, is a word found in Scripture, 

And meaneth a pupil, or one sent to school: 
But when we assert it of them who were dipt, sure 

It was but a figure explaining their rule. 
The brethren and sisters who made up the old church. 

Were styled gold and silver, sheep, citizens, stones ; 
But did they, for that reason, call it the gold church, 

The sheep church, or stone church, to slander her sons? 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



171 



CCCLXXXI. 
li 'My lord, I do own it, and must now confess V you, 

I much dread to meet you at doctrinal point ; 
But on all those matters I now have address' d you, 

I can gain a triumph, for you 're out of joint. 
Henceforth I'll give orders to every arm'd warrior 

To strike at your weak part, whatever his theme, 
And carry the war into Africa ; for you 're 

As weak as shorn Samson on order and name.' 

CCCLXXXII. 

" Thus ended the letter. I could have said much more 

By way of reprisals: but taking a thought 
He 'd go safe to heaven, e'en tho' I should touch more 

Th' assailable points of his system, or not — 
I left Mm to th' action of this great emetic, 

Cathartic, or tonic, or what it may be : 
Which e'er way it works, ij^ will prove energetic, 

And tell for time coming, I think. We shall see. 

CCCLXXXIIL 
" No answer I got to the diatribe sent him, 

But often I trembled lest one I should see ; 
I knew I was peccable, and had not pent him 

But at such points only as he could pen me. 
But such is the manner we always dispose of 

The arguments, death to our system and creed : 
So cutteth the suicide, raving, his nose off 

To spite his own face, or to see how 'twill bleed ! 



172 



THE TJNIVEKSALIAD. 



CCCLXXXIV. 
" Yet something we gain when we trench upon others — • 

We draw the attention of sophists, apace, 
From our own position, which darkens or smothers 

Perception, as touching the state of the case, 
We try hard to gull, and we make them believe it, 

If others are wrong, we of course must be right ; 
Their heart is so simple and dull, we deceive it 

With ? 'others in darkness, prove us in the light P 

CCCLXXXV. 
"But now, having utter' d my abracadabra, 

Those deep mystic symbols of thought that pertain 
To building our structure, no longer I lab'r a 

Defense of the dogma, or torture my brain. 
J Tis due, in conclusion, to show how our doctrine 

Doth bear on the conduct of them that believe ; [ 
And if you have brains, by some facts will be knock' d th' 

Full proof that we labor mankind to deceive. 

CCCLXXXV! 
" 'Tis known to the world that, at times of revival, 

If we gain admission all interest dies ; 
Doubt, carping and quibbling, attend our arrival, 

Peace leaves as we come, and discussions arise, 
I once went to church — 'twas an orthodox meeting ; 

The service was pious, but not over long — 
The brethren and sisters, all joyfully greeting, 

Pour'd out their fall hearts in the following song: 



THE UNI VEIL S ALI AD. 



173 



CCCLXXXYII. 
"'The God of my age was the stay of my childhood. 

In him I will trust, tho' my enemies cry, 
"Haste, haste, like a fugitive bird to the wild-wood ! 

To mountain or forest, fly, fugitive, fly !" 
But tho' I'm pursued by the archer and fowler, 

I've nothing to fly from, and nothing to fear; 
For God, my defense from the teeth of the prowler, 

Will save me, his servant, and succor me here. 

CCCLXXXVIIL 
" 'I stand on the Rock God has founded in Zion, 

And plac'd it, the bulwark of all that are pure ; 
That Rock, thro' all ages, his people rely on, 

Their hope, their defense, their salvation secure. 
Tho' deep be the groans all his people are telling, 

And sin, for a season, perplexeth their way, 
The star of eternity beams on their dwelling, 

The promise and pledge of a bright happy day. 

CCCLXXXIX. 
"'To Zion, the house of the Lord's habitation, 

That holds, tho' on earth, his free Spirit within, 
How mournfully joyful the heirs of salvation 

Ascend from the kingdom of darkness and sin : 
The proof of their love, of their faith the perfection, 

They labor in sorrow, temptation and pain. 
Till pure and immortal they reach their election, 

And never shall sorrow or suffer again. 



174 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



cccxc. 

" 'The Lord is my guide in the journey before me, 

As weak'ning I go, bowing down to the tomb ; 
He spreadeth the shield of his faithfulness o'er me. 

The word of his grace is my light in the gloom. 
But ah ! on the wretches his goodness despising, 

The storm of his vengeance for ever shall fall ! 
That storm, tho' it linger' d for ages, is rising, 

And hopeless perdition awaiteth them all P 

CCCXCI. 

" Thus ended their hymn, and the peace of the meeting 

For, catching a word from their heavenly song, 
^Perdition] I rose with design of defeating 

Th' effect of their fears, by harang'ing them long. 
I stray' d in the neighborhood sev'ral days after, 

Collected believers and form'd them a squad — 
Broke up the revival by grimace and laughter, 

And kept all my clan from the kingdom of God. 

CCCXCIL 

" There liv'd in our town one old Christopher Kizer, 

With one only son, both his clerk and his heir : 
Immense was the wealth of this griping old miser — 

But Jacob, the son, wish'd the money to share : 
But lest in starvation and want he might linger 

In age, the old sinner secur'd all his store, 
Nor touched a half -joe with benevolent finger, 

But, living on offal, he added still more. 



THE UNIVER SALI AD. 



175 



CCCXCIII. 

" The profligate son, having plann'd an invention 

To open the safe where old Christopher slept, 
Conceiv'd, with accomplice, the bloody intention 

Of killing his father ! and kilTd him unwept ! 
Bank-notes in abundance, and gold from all countries, 

No longer of use to the hapless man dead, 
Were borne off in wallets with shameless effrontries — 

The body all mangled and hid in the bed ! 

CCCXCIV. 

u Returning from preaching, as wont, after night-fall, 

I met the young villain at top of his speed ; 
His fears were excited lest stern justice might fall 

And cut from undutiful shoulders his head. 
6 Repent,' then I said, £ thou most hell-harden'd villain V 

' I'm going to heaven !' he replied as he pass'd — 
? Twas truth ! I had nothing, while he had the million 

And he may be first there, and I may be last ! 

cccxcv. 

" There liv'd, in the same town, an angel-like maiden. 

The pride of her father, her mother's first care : 
She lov'd young Alphonso, and all that he said in 

The praise of his flame, caught her heart with her ear, 
Alas ! the pure bliss of her parents departed, 

And brothers and sisters were happy no more ! 
That maiden, demented, long pin'd broken-hearted, 

And died of a wound not repentance could cure. 



176 



THE UNIVERSALIAD. 



CCCXCVL 
"I met the seducer and labor'd to shame him, 

But all my 'hortations were labor in vain ; 
I felt that I could not consistently blame him, 

Tho' keen I rebuk'd him again and again. 
£ I've heard you declare/ then he said, ' and I gulp it, 

That glory is mine, should I ruin ten more — 
But I will be punish' d (the voice of your pulpit) ; 

Well, that I can bear as with pleasure before.' 

CCCXCVIL 
" But now, by the length of my labors admonish'd, 

And by the dilemmas I find myself in, 
I think of concluding, but be not astonish'd, 

There must be an end to the things we begin. 
The whole of our system I now have gone over, 

And turn'd it and view'd it at every point; 
Wherever I could I have put on a cover, 

And, where I could not, it appears out of joint. 

CCCXCVIIL 
" Therefore, I must stop at this point in my circuit. 

And throw to the critics this child of my brain, 
And leave them to manage and mumble and work it 

The best way they can, till I labor again. 
The critics (I know them !) will saw, grind, and bevel- 

Their sawing and grinding, howe'er, I defy ; 
The whole learned junto may go to the devil. 

For that is their road to the glory on high. 



THE UNIVERSALIS. 



177 



CCCXCIX. 

u But should any stanzas seem vulgar and headlong, 

Then blame not the poet, but censure the creed — 
D' ye think they are lifeless ? they cannot be dead long, 

They '11 live to good purpose when thinking men read. 
But if my production 's approved — if it passes 

The critics' ordeal, or seems to win way ? 
'Twill be no great praise when those envious asses 

Chime in with my fame their affirmative bray. 

CCCC. 

" Then go, little book, % from Maine to Missouri, 

To mankind revealing the doctrine we hold ; 
Such saint-like integrity beameth from your eye, 

The world must believe it is truth you have told. 
"We '11 now be dismiss'd ; may you honor and cherish 

The word of salvation so graciously giv'n j 
If not, you shall linger in darkness, and perish. 

And die in your sins, and be turn'd into — heav'n F 



FINIS, 



LECTURES 

ON 

UNIVERSALIS!: 

WHEREIN 

THE SYSTEM IS EXPLAINED 



AND ITS 

CHIEF ARGUMENTS CONSIDERED AND REFUTED. 



BY ARTHUR CRIHFIELD. 



"But after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up onto thy- 
self wrath against the day of wrath." 

"Who, being past feeling, have given themselves over * * * to work 
all uncleanness with greediness." 



CINCINNATI: 
PUBLISHED BY E. SHEPARD, 

COLUMBIA STREET, 
SOLD BT S. W. LEONARD, LOUISVILLE, AND 
A. D. FILLMORE, CINCINNATI. 

1849. 

* • 



PREFACE. 



Having been placed by circumstances for several years 
past, in a situation favorable to understanding the doc- 
trine of modern Universaiism, and to seeing its practical 
results upon society, the author sincerely and religiously 
felt that he could not do a better work in reference to 
his fellow-citizens, than to offer them the following Lec- 
tures on that system. He believes, with the utmost 
firmness, that the sentiments of Universalists are delete- 
rious to the faith and manners of Christians. He has 
therefore spoken with plainness, and yet with that re- 
spect for the opinions of others which he thinks true 
modesty requires, and the genius of Christianity incul- 
cates in reference even to enemies. 

The Lecturer will be disappointed if the press in the 
service of Universaiism shall not attack him with great 
violence. Should this be done, we promise that every 
new argument, if submitted in a grave and dignified 
style, and holding some share of respect to our feelings, 
shall be met and refuted at large. Should any such 
champion wish to signalize himself in defense of his 
cause, all he has to do is to signify his wish for a public 
oral debate, and then, having an equal voice as to time, 
place, and rules, we will gratify him, though it should 
be to us a sacrifice of time and professional employment. 

The reader will find in the following Lectures, a con- 
siderable variety of new argumentation upon the whole 
subject, which he will not find in other publications. 
Universalists have a kind of standard works, such as 
Paige's Selections, for instance , in which all the texts of 



If 



Preface. 



Scripture supposed to oppose their doctrine, are explain- 
ed to suit their system ; and these volumes are in the 
hands of the Universalists generally. But the following 
Lectures present a machinery against the system to 
which, at present, Paige and Whittemore can apply no 
antagonism of sufficient force. 

Long experience and observation have taught the 
author, that there is no way so effectual in opposing error 5 
as clear exhibitions of truth. Let her be seen in her 
native simplicity, by the honest and ingenuous, and error 
will recede, though it have a hundred faces and a differ- 
ent dress for every day in the year. In these Lectures, 
therefore, we have looked at ITniversalism as it is, and 
compared it with the harmonious system of divine truth. 
We have given a demonstration that we think will sat- 
isfy all candid inquirers, that it is a mode of infidelity 
specious only by an appeal made in duplicity to the 
Bible. We say, made in duplicity — but yet, not thus 
made by every one that makes it ; for we can conceive 
how it may be, that persons are deceived into error with 
a good intention on their part. We can even conceive 
that some public pleaders of ITniversalism are honest 
men. Much depends on our tuition, and the circum- 
stances that surround us in society from early years. 
Many, however, there must be, who cannot plead either 
ignorance or deception as their cause of embracing it. 
Disappointment as to promotion in other societies, a 
latent infidelity, a querulous disposition, or other causes 
of a similar nature, have doubtless contributed no little 
to fill up the clerical corps, rather than a sincere love 
toward mankind, devotion to the good of souls, or to the 
glory of the Supreme Being. One would not easily be- 
lieve that man to be actuated by a principle of true benev- 
olence, who spends his time in teaching that virtue can 
do us no good, and vice no harm in reference to the life 
to come ; and surely while the salvation of his fellow men 



PREFACE. 



V 



is his professed object, we cannot view him many re- 
moves above a mad-man, when he tells us that men are 
in no real danger of being lost forever. But all this 
Universalism does, as the reader will see in the following 
volume. 

That the tendency of this system is downward — that 
it holds few, if any, redeeming qualities — and that, as a 
matter of course, those who embrace it have in the gen- 
eral no care to maintain the great doctrine of regenera- 
tion as preached by the apostles, but distinguish them- 
selves by harping on the one cord of their instrument 
all will be saved, while no one was ever yet in danger, 
by their own showing — will appear in the progress of 
our labors. There are many who are not prepared to 
throw off all restraints of religion, who nevertheless feel 
unreconciled to the strict holiness which the Gospel, as 
held by others, inculcates. They would have their con- 
sciences quieted and their fears dispelled. Universalism 
comes in to their aid. But to hear one who obeys not 
the Gospel, and who cannot be persuaded to honor the 
Lord of glory, merely because some institutions appoint- 
ed by him are supposed to be of no particular worth — 
to hear such a one, I say, talking loud and long of the 
love of God, of his goodness, of the atonement, &c, is dis- 
gusting to one who fears God and trembles at his word. 
It is sufficient for these talkers to hear that " God is 
love:" they suppose at once that it must follow that he 
will save them. They are incapable of reflecting seri- 
ously, that though God is love, hatred has been in the 
world for ages, is now, and for any thing they know, may 
exist in another state of being. 

These are, doubtless, "the last days" so graphically 
described by the apostles, when perilous times should 
come. Scoffers were to appear, who would question the 
day of Judgment itself, or make it any thing but " the 
day of wrath." They would deny the Lord that bought 



Vi • PREFACE. 

them, by rejecting his coming the second time to judge 
the world. The author seriously thinks that TJniversal- 
ism is the master principle by which the advocates of 
error will turn into ridicule the most solemn truths of 
our holy religion. They have commenced it already ; 
and but a little more time is wanting for them to com- 
plete their triumph over myriads of weak and unstable 
souls. With this view I have lifted up a standard against 
this wide-marching corruption. I have spoken with 
plainness, yet with sincerity and benevolence. 

The author begs permission, therefore, to inscribe 
these Lectures to his fellow-citizens, and to the lovers of 
truth and reason in general. The work partakes not at 
all of a party character, and as such is tendered to all 
Denominations in Christendom, with the hope that it may 
do some good in the eviction of truth and the exposure 
of error. If these ends shall be but in an humble de- 
gree accomplished, the author will feel compensated for 
the labor expended upon the work. 

ARTHUR CRIHFIELD. 

Covington, Ky., March, 1848> 



LECTUKES 

ON 



UNIVERSALIS M\ 



LECTURE I. 

TENDENCIES OF THE DOCTRINE. 

I shall not. in this place, attempt a definition of mod- 
ern, ultra Universalism : this will be found at large in a 
subsequent Lecture. I shall confine myself at present, 
for the most part, to a statement of the direct and inev- 
itable tendencies of the scheme in reference to the prin- 
cipal items that make up the faith of the Gospel. You 
will see, of course, as we proceed, that Universalism is a 
system of unbelief ; nullifies every item of divine truth 
heretofore thought essential to salvation ; and presents 
the Bible before you as the most inconsistent and inex- 
plicable of all books in the world. Let us take a cur- 
sory view of what the Bible teaches as necessary to sal- 
vation. 

I. Faith in God and his Son Jesus Christ, was, by Jesus 
and his apostles, said to be essential to the salvation of sin- 
ners. Take a few examples — " As Moses lifted up the 
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man 
be lifted up ; that whosoever believeth in him should not 
perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the 
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso- 
ever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life." — John iii. 14-17. " While ye have light, 
believe in the light, that ye may be the children of 
light." — John xii, 36. a But these are written that ye 



8 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS!*!. 



might believe, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and 
that, believing, ye might have life through his name." 
John xx, 31. "But whoso shall offend one of these lit- 
tle ones which believe in me, it were better for him that 
a mill-stone were hanged about his neck, and he were 
drowned in the depth of the sea."— Matt, xviii, 6. 
" Those by the way-side are they that hear ; then cometh 
the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, 
lest they should believe and be saved." — Luke viii, 12. 
"Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, 
that through this Man is preached unto you the for- 
giveness of sins ; and by him all that believe are justified 
from all things, from which ye could not be justified by 
the Law of Moses."— Acts xiii, 39, 40. "Believe on 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy 
house." — Acts xvi, 31. "The word of faith which we 
preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the 
Lord J esus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath 
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved : for with 
the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the 
mouth confession is made unto salvation." — Rom. x, 
9, 10. 

These passages, as the intelligent reader knows, are 
but a sample of an immense weight of testimony that 
both Testaments bear to the truth of our proposition, that 
faith in God and in his Messiah, is essential to the sal- 
vation of sinners. "Without faith it is impossible to 
please God ;" and it is equally impossible to be saved 
from sin in a way that displeases him. These passages 
clearly teach that God is pleased to save them who be- 
lieve with the heart, and make confession with the mouth : 
but as the words are all spoken to men in this life, and 
not in another, it is preposterous to affirm, that should 
they fail to believe and confess here, they will be pre- 
sented with the privilege hereafter. 

In opposition to all this clear and overwhelming testi- 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



9 



mony, Universalism teaches that faith, exercised in this 
life, and confession made here, are by no means necessa- 
ry to eternal salvation ! Jesus says, " As Moses lifted up 
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of 
Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish but have eternal life ;" but Universalism, with 
a most reckless effrontery, replies — Christ was indeed 
lifted up upon the cross, and will therefore save all men 
from perishing whether they believe in him or not, in this 
life ! They may be 'brought to believe, in the grave, or at 
the resurrection ! Thus the text is nullified, and the 
Divine Teacher of Israel represented as less than a 
prophet. 

Jesus further says — " While ye have light, believe in 
the light, that ye may be the children of light." Uni- 
versalism says, It is not absolutely necessary for you to 
believe in the light while you have it ; for the time is 
coming when all men will be the children of light, 
though they should happen to be children of darkness 
as long as they live ! This is no exaggerated picture. It 
is what every Universalist not only does, but must be- 
lieve. Jfc is what every clergyman of that sect knows to 
be his sentiment. It is what every editor and writer 
would acknowledge in a moment when he would not 
raise a dust to blind the eyes of his readers. Every 
man of them says that faith in this life is not essential to 
happiness in the next — that we all will become the chil- 
dren of light, irrespective of holiness of heart and life in 
the present world ! The system, then, as far as respects 
this world, is infidelity; for it does away the necessity 
of faith. 

John says, as we have seen — " But these (signs) are 
written that ye might believe that Jesus Christ is the 

Son of God, and that believing, ye might have lite 
through his name." But Universalism tells another 
tale. It says, Though faith in Christ be necessary in 



10 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSAL! SM. 



order to enjoy spiritual life in the life that now is, the 
life which is to come is not given on any such principle : 
he that has been an unbeliever Acre, all his days, is just 
as certain to have eternal life there, as Noah, Daniel and 
Job, James, Cephas, or Paul! The greatest sinner is as 
sure of that life, at last, as the greatest saint ! This is 
Universalism stark naked. Nor is there any way for its 
advocates to disown the ill-shapen bantling. 

We repeat what Jesus said—" Whoso shall offend one 
of these little ones which believe in me, it were better 
for him that a mill-stone were hanged about his neck, 
and he were drowned in the depth of the sea." To which 
Universalism responds, Yes, much better for him ; for 
plunging him into the depth of the sea, though covered 
over with crimes, would be the readiest way to send him 
to glory ! Whereas, to continue him in life, under his 
offenses, would be to cut him short of his estate, and, for 
the time being, to disinherit him ! Thus the wisdom of 
God is made to speak like a quibbler, by a system that 
aims to cut out by the roots all moral obligation. 

Jesus says — " Those by the way-side are those that 
hear ; then cometh the devil, and taketh awa^the word 
out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved." 
Universalism makes this passage null and void, by teach- 
ing — Men, indeed, may believe and be saved— and must, 
in fact, believe, if they would be saved in this life ; but 
they will be saved in eternity just as certainly without 
faith here, as if they possessed it. If sinners would 
have peace and a happy life in this world, they should 
believe in, and practice, the Christian religion : but if 
they want little happiness here, and great and perfect 
happiness hereafter, then let them work all uncleanness 
with greediness, and they cannot fail of it ! But their 
teachers tell us, they do not teach this. We say, they do 
teach it, and their hearers so understand them — that they 
cannot be understood otherwise. This is the system. 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



Paul says — " By him all that believe are justified " — 
u Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved." Universalism. allows all this to be very well ; 
but — but what ? Ail this is very good, but — all will go 
to heaven and find eternal salvation, whether they believe 
or not in this life ! Thus the grave, or hades, or purga- 
tory, or some nondescript limbo under the supervision 
of those great reformers, the devil and his angels, is con- 
stantly referred to, by Universalists, as the place between 
earth and heaven, where those who die in their sins, by 
some unknown, and to us unknowable, process, are 
scoured, or washed, or physicked, or scorched into purity, 
they know not how or why. 

Paul says further — " If thou shalt confess with thy 
mouth the Lord J esus, and shalt believe in thy heart 
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be 
saved"- — and, a him will I confess," says Jesus, " before 
my Father who is in heaven." But Universalism, with 
what we are compelled to consider a licentious boldness 
of contradiction, says — It is better respecting the present 
life, nay, and may be some better relative to the future, 
to confess Jesus before men : but, after all, J esus never 
will deny any human being before his Father in eternity. 
When Jesus says he will deny some who had denied 
him, and this before his Father and the holy angels, it 
must mean nothing more than the scene of temporal 
distress at the destruction of Jerusalem. He denied the 
infidel Jews at that time, before his Father and before 
the holy angels, that is, the troops of Titus, though, when 
those infidels were slaughtered, they went in a chariot 
of grace to the preparation for glory ! Thus, though no 
one can show, that either Jesus or his holy angels ap- 
peared at the destruction of J erusalem — though, in fact, 
there is positive evidence that no such appearance took 
place ; Universalism, hard pressed, but determined to 
find a hiding place in Jerusalem, adventures to say 



12 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS?,!. 



things outright, which all the intelligent know to be 
false ; as we shall see in our Lecture on the 24th of 
Matthew. 

II. Pardon of sin through faith in the blood of Christ , 
and in submission to the divine government, is an essential j 
article of Christian doctrine. a Repent ye, therefore, j 
and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out— I 
Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name 
of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins — -That repent- 
ance and remission of sins should be preached, in his 
name, among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem — By * j 
him all that believe are justified — Him hath God set 
forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood — ■ 
God sent Jesus to bless you in turning away every one 
of you from his iniquities." These, and an infinite 
number of other passages, prove conclusively, that justi- 
fication, or the pardon of sin, is an essential and most 
precious article of the Christian creed. Tell the poor, 
heart-broken sinner, who is smarting under remorse for 
his misdeeds ; whose soul is all alive to the fear of de- 
struction, for having so much and so long trampled upon, 
and disregarded, the divine goodness ; whose hope trem- 
bles at the foot of the cross, with scarce confidence to 
look up ; whose eye pours out the tear of contrition, and 
who asks for the way of life in all the haste of penitence, 
"What shall I do to be saved? 7 ' Tell him, I say, that 
the warm blood poured from the heart of J esus, upon 
the rugged irons of that cross, was shed for him, for his 
pardon, justification, or remission, and you make his heart 
leap for joy. Tell him to obey the Gospel, to submit to 
" the form of doctrine 11 recommended by the embassa- 
dors of Jesus; and, believing in his heart that God 
raised him from the dead, and confessing with the mouth, 
he will "obey from the heart." He will thus receive 
pardon for the sake of the " precious blood " of his Lord, 
He will " rejoice with joys unspeakable and full of glory, 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



13 



receiving the end of" his faith, "even the salvation of" 
his soul! Then tell him, that pardon is of no essential 
importance in reference to the state of glory ; and he 
will know that you tell a falsehood. Tell hini, that God 
did not pardon him. till he had suffered as much as his 
sins deserved, and think you he will believe you ? I tell 
you, nay ! ^ 

But Universalisni, a system of inexorable fate and ne- 
cessity, knows nothing of pardon ! There is no pardon 
in it. It practically denies the capacity of the Almighty 
to remit sins. The system, as such, is made up without 
reference to justification, however much noise its advo- 
cates make to the contrary, notwithstanding, as we shall 
now proceed to demonstrate. 

The principle on which Universalists set out upon the 
doctrine of pardon (for they claim that God does pardon 
sinners), is — That every sinner shall suffer all he deserves ; 
or, that God forgives, yet on such 'principles as will not 
allow the offender to escape any suffering that may be in- 
flicted, at the demands of justice. Then, where justice 
leaves him., mercy finds him, and does her office. Univer- 
salists will, doubtless, acknowledge this to be a fair state- 
ment of their doctrine of remission, which is plainly no 
remission at all, for the following reasons : 

First. The above assumption, as to pardon, involves 
in, and carries along with it, another ; namely — that the 
object of all those punishments that precede forgiveness, 
is purely disciplinary, and inflicted for the good of the 
offender. But from these positions the following absurd- 
ities must at once appear to every one who can render a 
reason. If the utmost that divine justice can demand 
of, and inflict upon, the sinner, be a salutary chastise- 
ment, to end in his reformation, then it follows that such 
discipline is the utmost curse of the divine law. In this 
view, let us read a few scriptures ; " The curse of the 
Lord is in the house of the wicked." — Prov. ,iii, 33, That 



14 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



is, if Universalism be true, the Lord inflicts upon the 
wicked a salutary chastisement, that must end in their 
reformation ! " He that giveth to the poor shall not lack ; 
but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse P 
Prov. xxviii, 27. That is, he who is cruel to the poor, 
shall be so dealt with by divine justice, as inevitably to 
secure his reformation, and consequent salvation ! " Ren- 
der unto them a recompense, Lord, according to the 
work of their hands. Give them sorrow of heart, thy 
curse unto them. Persecute and destroy them in anger, 
from under the heavens of the Lord." — Lam. iii, 66. 
That is, chastise them speedily, and restore them to ho- 
liness and virtue ! "And he shall turn the heart of the 
fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to 
their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse." 
Mai. iv, 6. That is, lest I reform the whole nation sud- 
denly ! " I will bless them that bless thee, and curse 
him that curseth thee."— Gen. xii, 3. That is to say, 
on the principles of Universalism, I will bless them that 
bless thee, and reform him that curseth thee ! "And the 
Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done 
this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every 
beast of the field ; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and 
dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life." — -Gen. iii, 14. 
It seems, however, that the £ work of reformation pro- 
ceeds tardily upon the serpent ; it has not as yet, after 
near six thousand years, either lifted him from his belly, 
or altered his diet ! 

Turn we now to the New Testament : "As many as 
are of the works of the law, are under the curse," — Gal. 
iii, 10. That is, on the principles of Universalist par- 
don, they are under discipline, and in, a fair way to be 
saved ! " Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, 
prepared for the devil and his angels." — Matt, xxv, 41. 
All which means, Come to me, by discipline, in a round- 
about-way ; be reformed by the devil and his angels ; let 



LECTURES ON UNIVEItSALISM. 



15 



them flagellate you as much as you deserve, and this will 
drive you up to the throne of glory ! " If we sin wil- 
fully after that we have received the knowledge of 
the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but 
a certain fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery in- 
dignation which shall devour the adversaries." — Heb. x, 
26, 27. That is, the discipline, though severe, is the 
very best thing that can happen to them, and which, if 
they understood the divine intention, is the very thing 
they would choose, as the only way of bringing them to 
eternal happiness ! 

While upon this subject, permit me to observe, that 
" if all punishment be inflicted for this end, namely, the 
chastisement and reformation of the offender, and if it 
secure the desired result, then punishment is not on the 
whole a real evil For, let it be kept in mind, that it is 
alledged in this argument that all the punishment ever 
inflicted on the sinner, is necessary to his highest happi- 
ness, to his eternal well-being. This, we say, is plainly 
no curse at all. It is just such a portion, as the subject 
of it, if he understood his true interest, would choose 
for himself. Thus all the threatenings of Grod's word 
amount simply to this: — If you sin, then you shall 
be put under the influence of the best possible means to 
reclaim and render you happy. If you trample on di- 
vine authority, God threatens to use the most efficient 
method to restore you to his favor. If you raise your 
arm against Omnipotence, that Omnipotence shall exert 
itself in the wisest possible manner to render you hap- 
py.' 7 - — Parker. 

Let the advocates of Universalism say what they may 
so long as they hold that all punishment is disciplinary 
and must result in the good of the offender, so long the 
above consequences must legitimately follow the posi- 
tion — that there is no real curse or real evil in the uni- 
verse- — that there is no such thing as pardon, and that 



!6 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS]*!. 



all the comminations and promises of the Bible amount 
to a pompous sound with no sincerity of meaning. Uni- 
versalism says to him whose hands are red with the 
blood he has spilt — Sir, you are under the most saluta- 
ry discipline which cannot fail to bring you to God! 
It says to the liar, the thief, the lecherous, the abom- 
inable of every stripe and grade of human depravity — 
Gentlemen, you are on the high road to heaven: go 
ahead — you cannot break beyond the bounds of the 
discipline of Omnipotence ! You will suffer, to be sure, 
all you deserve before you die; but the chastisement 
will all be salutary and for your good, and you will 
reach heaven just as certainly as Jesus died for 
the sins of the world! This is no imaginary por- 
trait of this unfortunate system. Its public advo- 
cates own the likeness as correct in the cardinal fea- 
tures. 

Now it is evident that the Almighty does pronounce 
curses upon certain incorrigible persons ; it is equally 
evident that a wholesome discipline is not a curse, but 
a blessing. It follows, therefore, that more than disci- 
pline or chastisement is required by justice in every 
case of offense. Adam was put under discipline before 
he offended at all, which shows that justice does no more 
require discipline than mercy, or wisdom, or truth. It 
follows, likewise, that whatever more justice requires 
than mere chastisement or discipline, is matter of for- 
giveness from the divine clemency. It follows, finally, 
that there is no such thing as pardon in the system of 
modern Universalism. It makes foolishness of all those 
numerous scriptures which speak of justification, par- 
don, or the remission of sins. 

Second. Pardon is by the Scriptures ascribed to the 
mercy or grace of God. A very few examples may suf- 
fice. " But after that the kindness and love of God our 
Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteous- 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



17 



ness which we have done, but according to his mercy 
he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and the re- 
newing of the Holy Ghost ; which he shed on us abun- 
dantly through Jesus Christ our Savior — that, being 
justified by his grace, we should be made heirs accord- 
ing to the hope of eternal life." — Titus iii, 4-7. " God, 
who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he 
loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quick- 
ened us together with Christ — by grace are ye saved — 
and hath raised us up together, and made us sit togeth- 
er in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." — Eph. ii, 4-6. 
" But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound : 
that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might 
grace reign through righteousness [by justification] un- 
to eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." — Romans v, 
20, 21. Every one, intelligent in the Record, knows 
that there is an immense variety of passages of the 
same import. 

But if, after all, God will not pardon my sins till af- 
ter I have suffered what they deserve, where is the 
grace or favor I receive from him? Is it & favor to be 
compelled to suffer ? I suffer either justly or unjustly. 
If justly, then it would be a favor to release me by par- 
don ; and nothing less than a release would be a par- 
don. If unjustly, it would be cruelty to hold me in fet- 
ters or duress. And when I am justified, what am I 
justified from if I have suffered what I deserved? 
Verily, there remains nothing to redeem me from, un- 
less it be from punishment which I do not deserve ! 
But if the law, which is holy and just and good, de- 
mand such a chastisement only as leads me to reforma- 
tion, when that is gained, God cannot lay any further 
stripes upon me without palpable injustice. I ask 
again, therefore, from what am I justified, if pardon 
does not release me from suffering what my sins de- 
serve % We have often requested Universalists to solve 
2 



13 



LECiTHES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



this difficulty ; but hitherto they have declined an an- 
swer, and now we cannot expect one. 

Again. If forgiveness cannot take place till after 
the sinner has received full punishment for the crimes 
forgiven, then it follows that the promise of pardon, 
made to faith and obedience, amounts to an assurance 
on the part of God, that he will not treat the sinner 
unjustly — will not chastise him more than he deserves ! 
For instance: A criminal has been sentenced to ten 
years imprisonment. The executive pardon releases 
him from the punishment. But should he be, de facto, 
confined, and suffer five years, still the executive pardon 
would release him from the remaining time. But, 
should he suffer the whole penalty of the law, he would 
need no pardon, and could not be forgiven : and should 
the executive happen to have no more common sense 
than to offer pardon to the criminal, such offer would be 
considered as an insult added to misfortune. Pardon is 
the means of parrying off the penalty of the law, and 
annuls it. The gubernatorial prerogative is above, and 
contravenes the legislative enactment, and plants grati- 
tude in the heart of the offender : and it is not other- 
wise in the divine administration. It is here that re- 
mission obviates the consequences of guilt, places the of- 
fender in a condition equivalent to innocence, and cuts 
off from the issue of his destiny the anguish otherwise 
inseparable from transgression. From the beginning 
of the world such have been the sentiments of mankind 
in reference to pardon ; and such are the views of Uni- 
versalists themselves, in every application of the term 
except in reference to religion. Here, its meaning must 
be inverted for the sake of the system. 

The following comparison illustrates the kind of grace 
manifested in a Universalist pardon : C D is indebted 
to A B in the sum of ten thousand. A B, the money 
being due, says, " Mr. C D, it is true you owe me some 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS]*!. 



19 



thousands, but then I am able to forgive you, and I will 
forgive you !" At these words the heart of C D leaps for 
joy, and he cannot conceal his gratitude. He speaks in 
the highest terms of the clemency of his creditor, and 
lauds it to the skies. But A B meets him afterwards, 
and explains the matter — for A B is a Universalist, and 
wishes to be one practically: and he says, ." Mr. CD, 
though I am able to forgive you, and will forgive you. 
yet you must pay the debt, principal and interest. God 
forgives our sins, but we must suffer their consequences; 
so I forgive you this debt, but you must pay it." " You 
insult me," says C D ; "you offered me a favor or what 
I understood to be such ; but I find your words to have 
no meaning, and to be a down-right mockery of my mis- 
fortunes." And would not the Lord equally insult us in 
our humiliations, and misfortunes, by saying, " I freely 
forgive you all your sins, but you cannot escape all the 
punishments that I have pronounced against them — I 
forgive the debtor but not the debt !" A sinner can 
never be brought to love such a God as this ! 

The subject of pardon has sorely puzzled Universal- 
ists. A writer in one of their magazines, not knowing 
what else to say, declares, "Although we are punished 
to the full extent of what we deserve for our sins, we 
need pardon in order to be reconciled to the Divine willP 
Now every one knows, who knows any thing of the 
Scriptures, that we must be reconciled to the divine will 
before we can be pardoned. Pardon never reconciled, 
never can reconcile, any one to the Divine will. On the 
contrary, the Gospel ministry was established for the 
purpose of reconciliation, in order to pardon. Take an 
example or two : The people, on the day of Pentecost, 
were reconciled to the Divine will before they were par- 
doned. They cried out to " Peter and the rest of the 
apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?" This 
inquiry proves them to have been reconciled to do all 



20 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



the will of God so soon as they should know what it was. 
And when Peter told them what to do, they "gladly" did 
what he commanded " for the remission of sins," which 
shows they were pardoned in doing the Divine will, and 
were reconciled to it that they might obey. Pardon 
cannot, in the nature of the case, be bestowed, save in 
obedience ; and obedience, in the nature of the case, can- 
not be performed acceptably, but from antecedent recon- 
ciliation. Here we have three thousand instances in 
proof of our position, that reconciliation precedes par- 
don, and, for the present, we need no more. Permit me 
to repeat, in substance, what the great Martin Luther 
has so well said, That that system must be essentially 
wrong in most things, which is wrong in the article of 
justification. Truly, the glass through which our Uni- 
versalist friends inspect the theological heavens, is a 
glass through which they not only see darkly, but is one 
that inverts the principal objects, and thus bewilders the 
observer. 

Universalist writers complain that we use the terms 
pardon and remission in the same sense that men use 
them when they "accuse or excuse one another." Well, 
either the terms* are used in Scripture in this sense, 
or they are not. If they are not, then pardon and re- 
mission have no meaning at all ; for how can that be a 
revelation to us, which, though spoken in our language, 
has another meaning than our words? If they are, 
then the doctrine of Ilniversalism, as to pardon, is ex- 
ploded. Our friends may take choice between the horns 
of this dilemma. 

The terms pardon and remission, condemnation andj?W- 
tificatioiu were perfectly well understood by the Greeks 
and Romans to whom Paul wrote ; and hence he never 
gave the remotest hint that he used them in a sense not 
acknowledged by them. But you will see at once that 
if the apostle did not mean to be understood by them 



LECTURES ON UNI VER SALT SM. 



21 



as they understood one another, he becomes chargeable 
with ignorance as to his mission, or infidelity to his 
brethren. Here is another dilemma for Universalism. 
The truth, however, is, that God has no vocabulary for 
man, but man's vocabulary ; and here we pin down the 
system of Universalism, and charge upon it the denial 
of the remission of sins. 

Our Lord has most beautifully illustrated his doctrine 
of pardon : He taught his disciples to pray, " Forgive 
us our debts as we forgive our debtors." How do we 
forgive our debtors ? If it be a book account, we enter 
credit in full, or cross it off ; if it be a note or obliga- 
tion, we deliver it up to the debtor. Thus we do, and 
thus all legal liabilities, in relation to our debtors, are 
taken off or annihilated. And just so does our Heaven- 
ly Father, in relation to us. When he forgives, he nul- 
lifies all legal process against us, on the score that has 
been forgiven. The commercial principle is taken to 
illustrate the moral, and is, in fact, the same, in this ap- 
plication. 

Paul says to Christians — " Be ye kind one to anoth- 
er, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, 
for Christ's sake, has forgiven you" — (Eph. iv, 32). 
Christians sometimes sin against one another. This is 
done by breach of some of the laws of God or of society. 
But compassion is a cardinal virtue with them. Like 
their Heavenly Father, they must be disposed to forgive 
the delinquent. They will not, therefore, be disposed 
to push their claims to the full extent that even justice 
might seem to allow ; and will relinquish, for the sake 
of mercy, those claims which, if insisted on, would sub- 
ject the offender to sufferings incompatible with tho 
reign of favor ) and with the general principle of benev- 
olence. And the doctrine of J esus, as above in part ex- 
pressed, is, that he who is inexorable toward his broth- 
er who has offended, will meet, when he applies for par- 



22 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



don, an inexorable God : " If ye do not forgive men 
their trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father for- 
give your trespasses." Hence the corollary is inevita- 
ble, that punishment or legal liability to it, is always 
annulled when crime is forgiven. Indeed, were it 
otherwise, as every one must see, there could not subsist 
the least grain of value in pardon : nay, pardon itself 
would admit of no definition but a name — a shadow — a 
shadow of a shade—- a figment not worth a groat. 
Make me suffer all that my sins deserve, and I thank 
neither God nor man for pardon. I stand upon my 
own rock, and praise my own fortitude. 

But our apostle develops the principle of the divine 
procedure in remission — "God, for Christ's sake, hath 
forgiven you." Now, if pardon, as Universalists affirm, 
be something that takes place after full punishment, 
what is that something ? Whatever it be, it is bestow- 
ed, not for the sufferer's sake, but for the sake of Jesus. 
But if I suffer all that justice requires, I cannot be par- 
doned for the sake of Jesus, unless God will do some- 
thing for me for his sake, that justice does not demand. 
But in the scheme of redemption justice as much de- 
mands the pardon of a believer as mercy does. If 
mercy demands that I should suffer what justice decrees, 
justice must liberate me for the sake of no one, as she 
has no further demand. Hence, to say that I am par- 
doned for the sake of Jesus, after I have suffered the 
demands of law and justice, is to say plainly, that God 
bestows something upon me for the sake of another that 
I might justly have claimed as a right of my own- — 
which is nonsense. The scheme of Universalism, there- 
fore, would nullify, not only the precious doctrine of 
pardon, but would set aside the piacular and meritori- 
ous offering of the Son of God— and is infidelity. 

Further. God can have no intelligent object in be- 
stowing pardon, on the principles of Universalism. It 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS]*!. 



23 



cannot make the culprit happier ; for, having paid up, 
by his own agonies, the last mite that justice claimed, 
or that discipline required, he becomes happy as a mat- 
ter of course, just as we feel happy when an old crazy 
tooth, which had pestered us for weeks by intense ach- 
ing, quits, or is extracted. It cannot make him grateful; 
for we are grateful only in proportion to favors received ; 
but no favor is granted here. It cannot be to save him 
from his sins; for salvation from sin- is a phrase that has 
no meaning, if we must at last suffer all that we deserve 
on account of it. It cannot be to guard him against sin 
in the future ; for that sin, if he shall commit it, will not 
be forgiven till he have suffered all it deserves, any 
more than the former. It cannot be to save him from 
eternal damnation ; for there is no such thing ! And fi- 
nally, it cannot be to save him ; for, according to the 
scheme, not one of the human race was ever in danger 
of perishing forever ! And thus, no man can conceive 
either what the pardon spoken of is, or what is the di- 
vine object in imparting it. Neither is there any pro- 
priety in a Universalist's talking about salvation from 
sin, as both sin and its punishment are, if the system be 
true, the very best things, upon the whole, that could, 
by any possibility, have come into the world. Sin is 
nothing worse than the sure road through which every 
man, whether he intends it or not, shall make his way 
to God. 

Forgiveness is sending away, abatement, release. Da- 
vid accordingly says, and Paul indorses the sentiment : 
" Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and 
whose sins are covered." But, according to Universal- 
ism, no part of this blessedness consists in the sending 
away, dismissal, or abatement of punishment. A man 
may be perfectly blessed and happy who suffers all his 
sins deserve ! Still, all intelligent men will ask, how 
can a man be blessed by being pardoned, if he does not 



24 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



become clear of the punishment due to sin ? If it be 
said, as it will, that the blessedness supervenes after the 
punishment, this is to give up the argument, as the man 
must feel well after the punishment, though he be not 
pardoned at all. But David sa}^s it is the far don that 
makes him happy, the fact that sins are sent away, and 
not the fact that they have been sufficiently punished. 
David does not say, " Blessed is the man who has got 
through all his sufferings for sin, for he has nothing 
more to endure" — but, "blessed is the man whose sin 
is pardoned," now- in the present world. The blessed- 
ness, then, consists in the abatement of punishment. 

Still further. God has been known to send curses 
upon individuals and nations, at one time, for certain of- 
fenses ; but at other times to withhold the curse, though 
the same crimes were repeated, under circumstances of 
aggravation. This fact may teach us, that God may 
justly curse any nation more than he does. When he 
sends a curse, it is nothing more than just, though, as 
we are wont to say, many " innocent persons " might 
suffer by it : but let us remember, again, that those very 
u innocent persons " may themselves be justly punished. 
The reason that the nations of the earth are not now 
cursed is, that Jehovah withholds, for the present, the 
claims of insulted justice. He might, in justice, let 
loose his " fiery indignation," and destroy his adversa- 
ries ; but he is pleased to confer upon men a space for 
repentance. He has even been known to " shorten v the 
days of tribulation, in some instances, not because jus- 
tice demanded it, but " for the sake of the elect whom 
he had chosen." A divine curse, therefore, cannot be 
satisfactorily understood upon any other principle, than 
that men do not receive, in this life, all the punishments 
their sins deserve. A curse is but an occasional open- 
ing of some of the minor magazines of wrath, to let the 
ungodly know what an eternal storm is gathering 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



25 



" against the day of wrath and revelation of the righ- 
teous judgments of God," when " he will render to every 
man according to his deeds." — Rom. ii, 6-9. 

We return for a moment to the prayer Jesus taught 
to his disciples. " And forgive us our sins; for we for- 
give every one that is indebted to us." — Luke xi, 4. Put 
the place in Matt, vi, 12, which says, " Forgive us our 
debts" in parallel with the one above, and we are taught, 
that when we sin against God or man, we constitute 
them creditors, or make ourselves debtors. We go into 
debt, morally, to men, when we fail to love them : and 
so in respect to God. Now, when we have done this, we 
can never help the matter, because a portion of our time 
has been wasted in hate, and cannot be recalled: for, 
though we may be brought to love again, and to continue 
in love, some of our duty has nevertheless been omit- 
ted, and we have no recourse but to call on the clemency 
of the injured party to remit the injury we have done. 
" Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." But 
if it be true, as Universalists assume, that forgiveness 
cannot be had till we have paid all we owe to justice, it 
is plain we cannot be forgiven at all any more than we 
can recall the time that has passed: and in this light 
we are viewed in the Scriptures, " having nothing to 
pay." This doctrine of penance before pardon, insults 
the divine clemency, and leaves no scope for the exercise 
of mercy. 

You will therefore bear in mind, that according to the 
system here opposed, God cannot be merciful to those 
who have offended, till they expiate their crimes by suf- 
fering ; unless it can be shown that it is mercy to pun- 
ish sinners to the full ! But after that, Universalism 
presents abundance of mercy to them who have paid 
their own debts ! At the time of our greatest need, the 
God of Universalism will not help us ; but when we 
have worried through the worse than " slough of des- 



26 



LECTTJJ2EL ON UNIVERSALISM, 



pond," on the other side he smilingly greets us, saying, 
" Your sins be forgiven you; go in peace." Is there any 
mercy here? No, not a particle. Such a God is a God 

WITHOUT MERCY— AN INFLEXIBLE TYRANT. If I must thuS 

suffer, before my father will forgive me, he thus shows 
me incontestably that he has no mercy on me, in refer- 
ence to my former conduct— he curses me, and mingles 
not in the dispensation a particle of mercy. Let it be 
assumed, if any please, that these curses of God are but 
modes of mercy, and we will tie the hands of such a 
boxer. Here, again, we see there is no such thing as 
pardon in Universalism. It is a system that know3 
neither justice nor grace, and is infidelity. 

If there be no such thing as the remission, abate- 
ment, or non-imputation of deserved punishment, then, 
when Christ suffered for sins, the just for the un- 
just, THAT HE MIGHT BRING US TO GoD, HE SUFFERED NOT 
ONLY UNNECESSARILY, BUT UNJUSTLY. 

It is remarkable how entirely opposite Universalism is, 
at every point, to the doctrine taught by the apostles 
and prophets. In the language of Scripture, the matter 
stands thus : " God laid upon him (his Son) the iniquity 
of us all; and by his stripes we are healed." But Uni- 
versalism would have it thus : He hath laid upon us 
our own iniquities, and by our own stripes we are heal- 
ed ! for he will never pardon till we have paid the last 
sigh and tear. Again ; the Bible says, " The chastise- 
ment of our peace was upon him. 5 ' But Universalism 
says, The chastisement of our peace is upon ourselves, 
and we must suffer it to the full amount of justice, as it 
will all turn out a means of grace ! Truly, if the bless- 
ed Jesus was chastised, bruised, beaten, cursed, put to 
grief and made sacrifice for sins for us, or on our ac- 
count ; and if we are to be punished as much as we de- 
serve nevertheless, though by faith we come to him and 
plead the virtue of his blood ; either his sufferings or 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



27 



ours must be superfluous. Why should both suffer for 
the same offenses, first Jesus " for "us," and then we for 
ourselves ? Here is more suffering than is necessary ! 
Who can paint the horrors and pangs of his right- 
eous soul when, " with strong crying and tears/' he labor- 
ed in Gethsemane, while " there was seen an angel of 
God strengthening him ?" Who can fathom the depth, 
or compute the weight, of that mighty agony he sustain- 
ed on the cross % Think you it was a trivial pain of 
which he complained : " My God, my God, why hast 
thou forsaken mef No ! He labored beneath the sins 
of a world ! No ! He was bearing our sins — the pun- 
ishment, the chastisement due to our sins — in his own 
body on the tree ! 

" The ransom was paid down ; the fund of heav'n, 
Heaven's inexhaustible, exhausted fund, 
Amazing and amazed, pour'd forth the price, 
All price beyond! Though curious to compute 
The angels fail'd to cast the mighty sum ; 
Its value vast ungrasp'd by minds create, 
Forever hides and glows in the Supreme. 
And was the Ransom paid 1 ? it was; and paid 
(What can exalt his bounty more?) for you. 
O the enormous load of human guilt 
Which bowed his blessed head, o'er whelmed his cross,, 
Made groan the center, burst earth's marble womb 
With pangs, strange pangs ! delivered of her dead I 
Hell howl'd; and heaven that hour let fall a tear: 
Heaven wept, that man might smile ! Heaven bled that man 
Might never die Dr. Young. 

But is it so that, after all this, we cannot be shielded 
from the just punishment due to sin 1 Is there no way 
to escape by " the stripes," of a surety ? Must we suf- 
fer as much for our own sins as if J esus had never suf- 
fered "for our sins?" At whose door, then, shall we lay 
this mighty excess of suffering? The excess is useless 
in the scheme of pardon, and of course will be of no ser- 
vice as to any thing else. 



28 



LECTURES ON UNIVEK,SALISM. 



"Should God chastisement twice demand 
Could gracq and justice shine ? 
First at my bleeding Surety's hand 
And then again at mine ?" 

Is it not a most dangerous, and, at the same time, a 
most impious declaration, that those great sufferings of 
the Son of God, were not designed to ward off from us 
merited punishment ? Since we must, if Universalism 
"be true, undergo a full punishment for our sins, the suf- 
ferings of the Savior were not designed to save us from 
any kind of punishment, present or future ! It falls out, 
then, upon the admitted principles of Universalists, that 
there is, and must be, an abatement or warding off of 
punishment, in consequence of pardon : for the very mo- 
ment it is conceded that the chastisement of Christ was 
in any sort, or for any thing, necessary to our exaltation, 
it is conceded that that chastisement was deserved by 
us, and, if we become benefited by it, does not fall upon 
us. He was not chastised for his own sake, but for 
every sinner : and that sinner, if he will come to J esus, 
may have the benefit of the chastisement. Jesus died 
for him. Thus we see again, that the system of Univer- 
salism would undermine and subvert the whole scheme 
of Christianity, by striking at the doctrine of substitu- 
tion. J esus bore our sins to bring us to God, knowing 
that were we compelled to bear them ourselves, we could 
never come to him. But we pursue this subject no fur- 
ther at present. 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



29 



LECTURE II. 

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. • 

The following prelection is a continuation of the ten- 
dencies of Universalism. We, therefore, call your at- 
tention to the following reason, which is the third in the 
order of the series : 

Third. Let us consider, in the next place, whether, 
if all the punishment men undergo be a wholesome dis 
cipline to bring them to repentance, there be any fitness 
or propriety in the terms used to describe it. 

Damnation. — " Wo unto you, scribes and pharisees, 
hypocrites ! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pre- 
tense make long prayer : therefore ye shall receive the 
greater damnation. 5 '— Matt, xxiii, 14. Does this mean, 
that those hypocrites should receive such a salutary dis- 
cipline as would, without fail, make them indescribably 
happy? Will the robbing of widows and orphans turn 
out, upon the whole, beneficial both to them and their 
oppressors ? as Universalism teaches. " Ye serpents ! 
ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damna- 
tion of hell?" — Matt, xxiii, 33. How can ye avoid ar- 
riving at Heaven by means of this wholesome discipline? 
"Ye serpents !" ye are in a fair way to endless glory — 
ye cannot miss it ! Chastise the serpent, and he will 
become a dove ; spread forth his grace-plumed vans, and 
hie him off to paradise ! " But he that shall blaspheme 
against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in 
daoger of eternal damnation." — Mark iii, 29. He is in- 
fallibly certain of being chastised into submission to 
God ; and though such men received no pardon under 
the Jewish law, nor under the Gospel, they will receive 
it in an age neither Jewish nor Christian. Eternal 
damnation comes to an end, and turns out to be only a 
severe, but wholesome, chastisement for a few years ! 
" They that have done evil shall come forth to the resur- 



30 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM, 



rection of damnation."— John v, 29. They shall be put 
under discipline the most wholesome imaginable, as dam- 
nation itself is but a form of divine mercy ! "Whose 
judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their 
damnation slumbereth not." — 2 Pet. ii, 3. Whose cor- 
rection has not been neglected, and whose merciful chas- 
tisement has by no means been omitted ; ail which shall 
terminate in their eternal salvation ! Now, the question 
is, if God intended, by such a term as damnation, to in- 
dicate his fatherly corrections, is not the term too strong? 
is there any propriety in using it ? 

Perdition. — " Those that thou gavest me I have kept, 
and none of them is lost but the son of perdition." 
John xvii, 12. And he is put under so wholesome a dis- 
cipline as will cause his "bowels to gush out;" but his 
soul will go to " its own place " in glory ! "And in noth- 
ing terrified by your adversaries," [their persecuting 
you] " is to them an evident token of perdition, but to 
you of salvation, and that of Grod."— Phil, i, 28. You 
need not be alarmed in the least, for while persecution 
is to you a pledge that you shall be saved at last, wheth- 
er you are faithful or not, the persecutors themselves 
have an evident token of G od's love : for the perdition, 
that is, the paternal chastisement that they will meet, 
will result in their salvation too, and you will ail meet 
in glory, and perhaps even some of them will arrive 
there first, and welcome you in ! " But they that will be 
rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many 
foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruc- 
tion and perdition." — 1 Tim. vi, 9. That is, "foolish 
and hurtful " are terms spoken after the manner of men ; 
for, in reality, this plunging into temptation, this being 
drowned in destruction and perdition, are only so many 
modes of discipline and fatherly chastisement. Those 
that plunge, as above, and are drowned and destroyed, 
lose nothing but their sins in the adventure, so that 



LECTURES ON UNIVEBSALISM. 



31 



they are gainers upon the whole. Had they, indeed 
remained innocent, they would have had happiness all 
the time ; but, if any man sin, it was to be so — as the way 
things are is the only way they can be : whatever has 
happened had to be so ! " But we are not of them who 
draw back unto perdition ; but of them that believe to 
the saving of the soul." — Heb. x, 39. Those, neverthe- 
less, who do draw back, fall back no further than into 
what is necessary for their purification. If they will 
incur guilt, will apostatise from the Christian profession, 
the utmost that can be said of it is, it is rather a more 
unpleasant road to heaven than the straight-forward 
one recommended by Paul. Perdition pertains to the 
present world ; and those that go back to it, are, in ref- 
erence to their whole journey, going fomvard to heaven ! 
A man, for instance, going from Louisville to Cincin- 
nati, may turn back for something he had left ; well, 
while he is thus going back to Louisville, is he not 
going forward to Cincinnati? Just so in reference to 
heaven — while a sinner is, in appearance, going to per- 
dition, he is, in fact, moving up to heaven, as fast as time 
can move ! " But the heavens and the earth which are 
now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto 
fire against the day of judgment and perdition of un- 
godly men." — 2 Peter iii, 7. The day of judgment 
began at the destruction of Jerusalem, and has been in 
progress ever since in the form of the Gospel dispensa- 
tion : ungodly men have been destroyed from that time to 
this, have been subjected to discipline and a kind regi- 
men, which in no case have failed to eventuate in their 
good. Perdition, therefore, is, upon the whole, the best 
thing they could receive under all the circumstances, 
as it uniformly terminates in eternal salvation ! But 
if we may here put in a plea for consistency, is there 
any in the use of this term in the above places, if it 
mean no more than a fatherly chastisement ? No, none, 



32 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



Wrath, Vengance, Indignation, Wo.— These terms 
generally indicate a stronger punishment than mere dis- 
cipline, though some of them may occasionally be used 
as descriptive of it. I shall not have space to adduce 
many passages ; one under each head must suffice here, 
as the subject will be before us again. "And great 
Babylon came into remembrance before God to give un- 
to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath /" 
Rev. xvi, 19. If mere discipline were here intended, is 
it likely the prophet would have used such tremendous 
and startling expressions 1 We cannot conceive what 
more God could pour out upon his enemies than "the 
cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath" The 
Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his 
mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on 
them that know not God," &c. — 2 Thess. i, 8. How it is 
that burning men up in flaming fire can be a salutary 
discipline and a fatherly chastisement, is a matter we 
lay over to be explained by Universalists. If this be 
discipline, hell itself may be a house of correction, and 
the devil a reformer ! " But unto them that are conten- 
tious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteous- 
ness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish." 
Rom. ii, 8. Is this discipline, a fatherly correction ? 
What, then, is a curse ? u Wo unto them ! for they have 
gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the er- 
ror of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsay- 
ing of Core."— Jude 11. If such language is taken to 
describe a wholesome discipline, no one can show how 
" eternal damnation " ought to be expressed. " Would 
it be proper," Mr. Parker has very justly asked, " to call 
the wise and wholesome discipline of parents, a curse, 
and fiery indignation, vengeance, and wrath without 
mixture ? Do any of you ever use such terms in setting 
forth the discipline to which you are compelled to resort 
in your families ? Pid you ever think of saying to your 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS!!!. 



33 



friends, Very difficult and trying duties have devolved 
on me of late ; I have been under the necessity of curs- 
ing my eldest son, and pouring out upon him wrath 
vnthout mixture. I have also made my daughter an 
anathema, and have come out against her in great fury 
and with fiery indignation" My wife was to some ex- 
tent involved in the affair, and I poured out upon her 
the cup of the wine of the fierceness of my wrath I If 
we heard a father talking in this style, and talking seri- 
ously, we could never imagine he had been disciplining 
his family for their comfort ; we would suppose he had 
been destroying them. And so will God punish all the 
incorrigible "with everlasting destruction," when he 
shall send his Son to judge the "quick and dead." 

There is, we take this occasion to remark, a certain 
class of persons whom our merciful Heavenly Father 
visits with chastisements for their good. These are the 
saints. These are constantly spoken to as children. He 
corrects them because they are children, not to make 
them children ; because they are born Into his family, 
not before they are born, as Universalism teaches, to 
bring them to their birth ! Paul explains the matter. 
He speaks not of apostates from the faith, nor of those 
without, in the world, nor of such as had long and 
openly resisted the Gospel : he speaks of the true be- 
lievers: "Ye have forgotten the exhortation which 
speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise 
not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when 
thou art rebuked of him : for whom the Lord loveth he 
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with 
sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth 
not ? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are 
partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Further- 
more, we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us, 
and we gave them reverence : shall we not much rather 
3 



34 



LECTURES ON UNIVE.RSALISM. 



be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? For 
they verily for a few daj^s chastened us after their own 
pleasure ; but he for our profit, that we might be parta- 
kers of his holiness. Now, no chastening for the pres- 
ent seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, af- 
terward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness 
to them who are exercised thereby." — Heb. xii, 5-11. 
It ' is, therefore, a manifest perversion, when the above 
and similar passages are applied .to such as have never 
been converted. The afflictions or chastisements of the 
saints " work for them a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory:" but it is monstrous to affirm that the 
"damnation 11 and everlasting "destruction" of the wick- 
ed, have the same design. Thus, again, the system of 
Universalism is stranded ; the vessel splits ; the cargo 
of contraband goods is lost ; and the supercargo, afraid, 
as usual, of the light, hides in the gloom of his own em : 
pire. 

There is another proposition to be stated in this place ; 
and, with our remarks upon it, we conclude the present 
Lecture. We add, 

III. Holiness of heart and life are everywhere inculca- 
ted in the Holy Scriptures, as necessary to be acquired in 
this life in order to admission into the everlasting Kingdom 
of God: This proposition is so plain, and is perceived so 
easily, as by intuition, that it is wonderful that any one 
claiming to be religious should be found to dispute it ; 
more wonderful still, that he should attempt to disprove 
it by Scripture ; and, most of all, wonderful, that others, 
professedly wishing to be saved on the plan of the Bi- 
ble, should listen to and believe a scheme which cannot 
stand but upon perversions of that holy book. Wonder- 
ful as it is, J esus has resolved the cause of it into the 
vitiated state of the human heart. "I am come," said 
he to the Jews, " in my Father's name, and ye received 
me not : if another shall come 5 in his own name, him ye 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS]*!. 



35 



will receive !" But we will return to the proposition, sus- 
tain it by the Scriptures, and calculate the tendency of 
the opposite doctrine. 

" Godliness is profitable unto all things," says Paul, 
" having promise of the life that now is, and of that 
which is to come. This is a faithful saying, and worthy 
of all acceptation " — (1 Tim. iv, 8, 9.) It is, indeed, re- 
sponds Universalism, a faithful saying, and worthy the 
reception of all men ; but let it be remembered, that un- 
godliness has just as much promise of the life to come, 
as the strictest godliness — that is — ungodliness cannot 
kinder, practiced only for a short time here, eternal life 
hereafter. Thus the force of the passage is wholly lost, 
and means nothing. 

a Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a 
crown of life," says Jesus by his Spirit to the churches; 
but the disorganizing spirit and distempered genius of 
Universalism add, " Nay, I will give thee a crown of life 
at any rate, faithful or unfaithful, believing or infidel ! 
If you are not faithful till death, I will make you faith- 
ful after death, or in the resurrection ; so that there is 
no way that you can avoid receiving a crown of life !' 7 
Thus another passage is rendered useless by this boa 
constrictor on the tree of knowledge. 

A writer in a Universaiist periodical makes the fol- 
lowing remark : c - The bliss of the righteous will termi- 
nate, as a reward; but eternal life is the gift of God, 
and depends not upon the virtue of the recipient in this 
world. 11 Faith or unbelief, holiness or unholiness, there- 
fore, virtue and vice, whatever may be the amount of 
their influence or of their degrees, in this world, have 
no influence upon the future destiny of man ! And this 
is Universalism as defined by its friends. They thus 
exhibit it, denuded of the gaudy verbiage by which it is 
sometimes decked off, and sent into the world in quest 
of proselytes. Eternal life is a reward for a while, or 



36 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



perhaps, in this world ; and then comes to an end, and 
turns into a gift ! Whereas, it is a gift at its commence- 
ment, and onward, as every one knows, who knows any- 
thing of the Bible. 

" I have fought a good fight," says Paul, " I have fin- 
ished my course, I have kept the faith ; henceforth there 
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the 
Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: 
and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his 
appearing " — (2 Tim. iv, 7, 8). But had he been a Uni- 
versalist he would, or should, have said : But this crown 
would have been equally sure to me if I had fought a 
bad fight, or left my course unfinished, or denied the 
faith ; and will be given to every one that hates his appear- 
ing, as certainly as to those who love it— to the covetous, 
proud, boasters, blasphemers, disobedient to parents/un- 
thankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-break- 
ers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those 
that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of 
pleasure more than lovers of God — to such as Jannes 
and Jambres, who withstood Moses — to such as those 
whose minds and consciences are defiled, being abomina- 
ble and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate — 
to them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, 
but obey unrighteousness — to such as all their lives were 
filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, malicious- 
ness, envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity — to the 
whisperers, back-biters, haters of God, despiteful, inven- 
tors of evil things, implacable, unmerciful — to the law- 
less and disobedient, the ungodly and sinners, the un- 
holy and profane, the murderers of fathers and murder- 
ers of mothers, the manslayers, the whoremongers, the 
defilers of themselves with mankind, the men-stealers, 
liars, perjured persons ; and if there be any thing else 
contrary to sound doctrine — I say, had Universalism 
been true, Paul would, or should, have made out some 



LECTURES ON' X7NIVERSALISM. 



37 



such list as the above, as sure candidates for the crown 
of righteousness, even should they never forsake their 
sins while they live ! The meaning of words is now noth- 
ing ; the exhibition of motive is a deceptive ligature of 
words ; and promises to the godly are an empty sound — 
meaning, as one would suppose, something particular to 
a specified class ; and yet, in fact, the same thing to all 
classes ! 

14 Then see, ah, see, the horrid Babel rise ! 
The words us'd heretofore, which people thought 
Of meaning clear, no meaning now possess, 
Or quite another ! Mortar now means brick, 
And brick bitumen; and bitumen, aught 
The heavens beneath, except itself! Wow fool 
A wise man means, and now a wise man, fool. 
TVattr means wind, or spirit — fog or smoke, 
High rolling up the heavens, obscuring all, 
Is sunshine now ; afterward means before, 
And past means present or the future: hell 
Old Hinnom is, or conscience; as for sin, 
'Tis but a railroad leading down, but down 
Is up in this wild category — sin 
A railroad is, with locomotives throng'd, 
And cars with passengers: the devil's self 
Is nobody — and all for glory bound!" 

" Charge them that are rich in this world," says Paul 
(1 Tim. vi, 17-19), "that they be not high-minded, nor 
trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who 
giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, 
that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, wil- 
ling to communicate — laying up in store for themselves 
a good foundation against the time to come, that they 
may lay hold on eternal life." It must be manifest to 
every one, that this passage teaches an indispensible 
connection between holiness of character here, and the 
possession of eternal life hereafter ; and that, if such a 
connection was not present to the apostle's mind, he 
must have felt the keenest self-reproach for uttering 



38 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



himself in this way. Would any person, in his senses, 
ever think of adducing this passage to prove there is no 
such connection % Abner Kneeland, formerly the head 
of Universalism in this country, but now an Atheist or 
Pantheist (following out the tendency of Universalism), 
felt a difficulty when he came to translate this place — 
(for he made a translation to favor Universalism as much 
as possible) — and the last clause runs thus : " that they 
may lay hold on the true life !" Shameful as this was, 
he could do no better. He knew himself to be dishon- 
est and disingenuous in making the phrase " true life " 
translate u tes aiooniou zooes" eternal life! He wished 
to confine " the time to come " within some period that 
would soon terminate (the destruction of Jerusalem, 
without doubt), and then the " true life " would be that 
which those who escaped should possess. It was neces- 
sary for them to be holy that the Gentiles might escape 
the destruction of the Jews, that Ephesus, and even 
Rome itself, might be safe when J erusalem fell ! What 
a miserable shift is this ! And yet it is the very best 
that Universalists can do with the passage. The pas- 
sage in question teaches that, although full provision has 
been made for the salvation of mankind, none of them 
who have sinned will be saved by it unless they by faith 
and obedience appropriate it to themselves. It is, there- 
fore, purely by grace or favor that salvation is bestow- 
ed ; as much so, as the generous citizen who makes a 
feast for the poor as a gratuity — a feast which costs 
them nothing — bestows favor by bestowing food. How- 
ever, if the poor would be benefitted by it, they must eat. 

" But now, being made free from sin, and become ser- | 
vants of God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the 
end, everlasting life." "Now, if any man have not the 
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." "If ye live after j 
the flesh, ye shall die : but if ye, through the Spirit, f 
do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." " For 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



39 



as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the 
sons of God." "And, if children, then heirs ; heirs of 
God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suf- 
fer WITH HIM, THAT WE MAY BE GLORIFIED TOGETHER." 

(Horn, vi and y'm, passim.) 

Several important items are here distinctly particu- 
larized. 1, Pardon is necessary to free us from sin ; 
this liberation is essential to fruitfulness in holiness; 
and the practice of holiness is essential to everlasting 
life. 2. Christ owns no man as a member of his Body 
who does not possess his Spirit ; that is, the Holy Spirit, 
whose influences lead to holiness of heart and life. 3. 
Men who continue to walk after the flesh while they 
live, shall die ; and this is, therefore, plainly, neither 
physical death — for all, good and bad, are subject to 
that — nor moral death, for that is it under which all 
sinners are placed already, and are dead while sinning ; 
but here there is something, called death, that falls upon 
the incorrigible after their course of transgression is 
ended : it is, therefore, "a second death," not induced 
by the disobedience of the first man, but by those sins 
of their own, which sinners would not, in life, allow to 
be pardoned. There is no proposition clearer than this. 
4. Eternal life is promised to Christians, if they will 
mortify the deeds of the body ; by which is meant, not 
a mortification during a short time merely, but a denial 
and mortification of the deeds of the body during its 
whole history, a complete, not partial, mortification. 
God makes his promises to virtues completed, as to dura- 
tion, not to virtues merely incepted or begun. 5. All 
| such as God acknowledges as children — being forgiven, 
possess his Spirit — are godly ; that is, are like him. 
1 Those, therefore, " are none of his " who refuse to be led 
' ; by his Spirit : they are foreigners. 6. All who are 
i children by faith, are heirs of all the estate of glory 
i which the Father has given to the Son. But they can- 



40 



LECTURES ON TTNIVER S ALISM. 



not claim this divine patrimony merely because they are 
sons at the time of faith and first obedience, though at 
that time their title is clear ; but this title must be kept 
clear ; and this feature of the subject is plainly marked 
by the expressions, " if so be that we suffer with him, 11 if 
we continue to maintain the station and dignity of chil- 
dren, if we continue faithful to him while we live, " that 
we may be glorified together; 11 for it is absurd to think of 
wearing the crown without having borne the cross. This 
place finds its parallel in the following : " If a man strive 
for masteries, yet he is not crowned unless he strive law- 
fully. The husbandman that laboreth must be first par- 
taker of the fruits. Consider what I say ; and the Lord 
give thee understanding in all things. # * It is a faith- 
ful saying : For if we be dead with him, we shall also live 
with him : If we suffer, we shall also reign with him : If 
we deny him, he also will deny us : If we believe not, 
yet he abideth faithful — he cannot deny himself. Put 
them in remembrance of these things."— (2 Tim. ii, 5-14.) 

But let us now spread out before you another system 
of doctrine. It puts us in remembrance of these things : 
a The end of every man is eternal life, whether, in this 
world, he have his fruit unto holiness or not : If ye live 
after the flesh, ye are dead as long as ye continue so, but 
ye shall live eternally in Heaven after the death of the 
body ; and if ye mortify the deeds of the body ye can 
gain no more : As many as are led by the Spirit of God, 
are, indeed, the sons of God ; but all who are, in this 
life, led by the spirit of the devil, will be as rich in glo- 
ry as they : If children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and 
joint heirs with Christ — all which is very true ; but the 
believer has the advantage only in so far as the present 
world is concerned, for all, without distinction of char- 
acter, are equally heirs to future bliss ; suffering with 
Christ here, is not connected with being glorified with 
him there ! He that strives for masteries, or strives not, 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM, 



41 



lawfully or unlawfully — no difference, so far as the great 
concern of eternal life is involved — or he who strives not 
at all, is equally sure of the immortal diadem, as the 
most temperate and devoted pleader for the prize. If 
we be dead with him in this world, it is true we shall 
live with him in another ; but it is equally true that we 
shall live with him then, though we live unto sin while 
we live here ! If we suffer with him here, we will reign 
with him there ; but we will reign there at any rate, 
should we, in all this life, be " lovers of pleasure more 
than lovers of God," If we deny him, he will deny us 
at some such place as the destruction of Jerusalem; 
but he will own every traitor by converting him in the 
resurrection ! If we believe not, it is no great difference ; 
it is, in fact, none at all, in reference to the eternal 
world ; for he abides faithful, and the meaning of this 
is, he will save us then, by making us holy. Put them 
in remembrance of these things." So speaks Univer- 
salism, and so speaks every pleader for it, whatever may 
be his form of words. " Good words and fair speeches" 
will, of course, " deceive the hearts of the simple ;" but 
while what we call common sense shall find a residence 
among men, Universalism will be considered as fairly de- 
lineated in the above portrait. Nay, more ; its public 
teachers cannot feel otherwise than smitten with the 
force of this popular objection. They always feel so : 
hence, their constant labors to reconcile their views with 
what appears in the Bible so flatly to contradict them. 

Such a passage as the following illustrates the tenden- 
cy of the doctrine : Paul says to the Corinthians, " Know 
ye not that they who run in a race all run, but one re- 
ceive th the prize ? So run that ye may obtain. And 
every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in 
all things, Now they do it to obtain a corruptible 
crown, but we an incorruptible,"— (1 Cor. ix, 24. 25. ) 
The question is, how would a Universalist clergyman 



42 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



hammer his doctrine out of this text % In other words, 
how would he reconcile it to his views ? The leading 
idea in the text is, that there is a necessary connection 
between running in a certain manner, and obtaining the 
incorruptible crown ; and the whole similitude is drawn 
from the Grecian races in the stadium, where the suc- 
cessful party obtained the prize. In the Christian sta- 
dium, all that run may be crowned, if they will u so run n 
as the apostle directs. Here, then, is the difficulty : " So 
run," says the apostle, " that ye may obtain;" "they do 
it to obtain a corruptible crown" of mere weeds; "but 
we do it to obtain an incorruptible crown " of glory and 
life. It must be allowed that the temperance and agili- 
ty of the young and ambitious Greek had something to 
do in securing his crown ; but now, how can we make it 
out that the holiness, vigilance, temperance, godliness, 
and promptitude, of Christians, have nothing to do in 
securing their incorruptible crown ? for all this must be 
made out, if Universalism be true ! And here, we say, 
is a large difficulty. But how is it met? The answer 
is, It is never met at all. and cannot be. The system 
here comes to a dead halt. The hill is steep, and the 
forces, behind and before, the pushing and pulling, can- 
not move a vehicle so laden with the merchandise of 
Babylon, against all the laws of gravity, solemnity, and 
common sense. 

Something, however, must be said, in replication, to 
keep up the appearance of argument, and to satisfy the 
more inquisitive Universalists. If about as many words 
be uttered, and those words be called an answer, though 
without the shadow of argument, to such difficulties as 
the above, the thing commonly passes off, and Univer- 
salists report a victory, as usual. The way they must 
meet the above is this : If, say they, eternal salvation 
cannot be had without holiness of heart and life here, 
then we purchase Heaven by our good works. This is 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



43 



tlie gist of the whole objection. We will look at it for 
a moment. 

It is clear that we "are saved by grace," and yet it is 
equally clear that we are u saved by grace through faith. 11 
The whole is illustrated by one of the parables of Jesus. 
A certain man made a feast. Provisions were prepared. 
Messengers were sent out to invite guests. The provis- 
ions of this feast were the grace or favor of the house- 
holder, to those who were invited. His inviting them 
made them know the feast was for them. Now, when 
the guests came and partook, did they purchase the fa- 
vor by coming, or by eating after they came ? Neverthe- 
less, their staying away would have deprived them of 
the benefits of the feast. So it is in» reference to the 
Gospel feast. We but do our duty in coming, because 
we have been so commanded, so that there is no merit 
or purchasing worth in our act of coming : and when we 
receive the bounties of the feast, we cannot deserve them 
by the act of eating. " By grace are we saved, through 
faith, and that not of ourselves ; it is the gift of God." 
But if we will not come to the Gospel feast, we must 
starve and famish forever. This feast is offered to the 
family of man while he is alive ; let him not, therefore, 
suppose that God will prepare another, and force its pro- 
visions upon him after he is dead. Faith was designed 
to work by love, in the formation of that character which 
Jesus will finally own and bless. 

Who would ever think of praising the human heart for 
its diastole and systole, in causing the circulation of the 
blood ? Faith, if I may so say, is the diastole or dilatation 
of the heart, by which it receives the divine bounties ; 
and love is the systole, or energizing principle that dis- 
tributes those bounties in offices of goodness among 
men. To say, therefore, that we can, by any possibility, 
arrive at Heaven without the faith that works by love, 
forming us, in this life, to a temper suited to that holy 



44 



LECTURES ON UNI VERBALISM. 



place, is equivalent to saying that a man may live here 
without the circulation of his blood. And as we do not 
praise ourselves because our blood circulates, so neither 
do we sing glory to ourselves because we are saved. 

Upon the whole, is it not most apparent that the great 
objects of the apostles were, first — To acquaint mankind 
with the humiliating fact, that human nature is broken 
and destroyed by sin — that it is utterly lost in itself; 
and, secondly — That conversion to God, effected through 
faith, repentance, and obedience — and, therefore, purely 
by divine grace — and effected, too, in this life, is necessa- 
ry alike to spiritual enjoyment here, and immortality 
hereafter 1 Does^it not seem, if those qualified embassa- 
dors did not intend to teach holiness now, as essential 
to the obtainment of Heaven then, that they have been 
singularly unfortunate in their use of words and phrases ? 
We cannot imagine what language would teach such a 
connection, if the samples we have given must fail. 

Paul endured "all things for the elect's sake, that 
they might obtain the salvation of God with eternal glo- 
ry." It never came into his mind that all men were 
perfectly safe, respecting eternal glory, without his mis- 
sionary and apostolic labors. It was equally far from 
the thought of the original twelve. They preached 
" repentance and remission of sins," in the name of their 
Master, "among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem;" 
and why? Merely that men, by holiness, might enjoy a 
better life here? that godliness might have promise of 
the life that now is % No, my friends ! More was intend- 
ed ! They taught the same their Master inculcated be- 
fore them — that men could lay up, for themselves, treas- 
ure in heaven, and if they did not, that they could not 
obtain it. This gave energy to their efforts, and scope 
to their ministry. Every apostle was as a cistern filled 
with living water ; and those waters of life, poured out 
by the ministries of the Holy Spirit, chiming as they 



LECTURES ON UNIVEESALISM. 



45 



flowed, and uniting in their course from Jerusalem to 
the ends of the earth, fell, as it were, in cascades of heal- 
ing grace upon " every creature under heaven." And 
when men were healed and " renewed in the spirit of 
their minds," had the healing and renovation no insep- 
arable connection with immortality? Universalism ! thou 
art a phantom and a cheat ! May the words of our ado- 
rable Lord, who never spoke to deceive, sink deep into 
all our hearts — " Be thou faithful unto death ; and I will 
give thee a crown of life." 



46 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



* LECTURE III. 

THE PRIESTHOOD OF AARON AGAINST UNIVERSALISM. 

Universal] sm ? as a system of human reasoning upon 
the great articles of the Christian religion, teaches, that 
virtue can do man no good, and vice no harm, in refer- 
ence to the life to come — that the one has no part in se- 
curing, and the other none in endangering, his eternal 
happiness in another life — that the best saint will re- 
ceive no more, and the worst sinner no less, than eter- 
nal life— that there is no essential connection between 
character formed here, and the condition in which we 
shall be placed there — that, in a word, religion— that is, 
faith, repentance, obedience to the Gospel, holiness of 
heart and life— have nothing to do in reference to our 
laying hold on eternal life ; for that life will be the lot 
of all mankind, no matter what kind of character they 
may form in the present world. 

Such is the system of Universalism, when denuded 
of the deceptive integument of words by which its pub- 
lic advocates are ever concealing it ; and, it may be add- 
•?d, such it is owned to be by the more ultra but ingenu- 
ous of its accredited pleaders. A fair and acknowledged 
definition, in the first place, seemed desirable, and even 
necessary. By this definition, then, I do not denigrate 
or blacken the sentiments of any one ; and I trust there 
is no gentleman among Universalists who will so charge 
me. My labor and controversy are not with persons, but 
things. If, in defining as above, I have seemed to pre- 
sent Universalism to the world in a dress rather home- 
ly than otherwise, or rather in no dress at all, but per- 
fectly naked, my apology is, that I confess it somewhat 
difficult so to define the system as to give no appear- 
ance of harshness. The reason, doubtless, is, the thing 
is of itself so unprepossessing when seen as it is^ that the 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



4? 



mildest word contracts an asperity, when employed in 
relation to it. 

If snch be the system of Universalism — if, as it teach- 
es, virtue can do man no good, and vice no harm, in 
view of the life to come — you will say at once, the system 
is too absurd to be believed for a moment, provided the 
Bible is to be umpire in the cause. But there are two 
consideration to be taken into the account. The jlrsi 
is, if men generally understood the Bible, and were dis- 
posed to practice its precepts, they would be in no dan- 
ger from Universalism ; but, unfortunately, the Bible 
finds but a small share of attention among a considera- 
ble portion of our population, and thousands will not 
obey it, though they know what it enjoins. In this con- 
dition they want something to quiet their fears, and par- 
alyze their conscience — some anodyne or soporific theo- 
logical, that will not only give them sweet and gentle 
sleep, but preclude their being aroused from their slum- 
bers : and Universalism spreads beneath them a couch of 
down, and sings them a song of everlasting repose. The 
second is, Universalist preachers do not so much aim to 
explain their scheme, that their hearers may perceive def- 
initely what it is, or what it requires, if anything, as to 
give versions of Scripture, and commentaries on pas- 
sages that public sentiment considers in their way. 
These commentaries are often managed with skill, some- 
times with erudition, always with boldness and great 
verbosity ; so that the week, unknowing, and such as 
want a pretext for disobedience, naturally slide into the 
scheme. 

It is very common with this class of preachers to give 
out, from time to time, on what passages they will preach, 
selecting, generally, those which seem directly to contra- 
vene their theory. Well, the time comes. Then com- 
mences a covering up ; a soldering of flaws ; an array of 
criticisms ; a mixing of things physical and moral, liter- 



48 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



al and anagogical ; a patching of the canvas ; a caulking 
of the hull ; a tarring and splicing of the cordage ; and, 
to drop the figures, every species of exegesis by means 
proximate and remote, Christian, Jewish, or heathen — 
to make out, at all hazards, and by all means, the dar- 
ling themes, no hell after death, no punishment be- 
yond the grave ! When the work is done, some simple 
fellow says, as he returns home, " That was a mighty 
sermon ! I should never have thought the text meant 
that ; but 'tis true ! What a shower of Scripture was 
brought to prove it !" 

If we add to these two other facts, first, that the views 
of the Divinity, urged by these speakers and writers, are 
highly metaphysical and speculative (based upon theo- 
retical, not practical, details of the Divine procedure — on 
what they suppose God must be and do, rather than on 
what he has done and is), and likely to be admitted at 
once, by such as are unaccustomed to reflection and rea- 
soning ; and, secondly, that the views advanced of the 
attributes of the Almightly are aimed to fix it in the 
minds of men, that those attributes are necessarily hos- 
tile to an everlasting punishment of the wicked, in an- 
other state of being ; and, taking into the account an 
additional fact, that much art and tact are displayed to 
tickle and amuse the populace by ad captandzim vulgus 
drollery and appeals to the passions — we must conclude 
that the system, if it may be called a system, that is gov- 
erned by no regular laws or canons of interpretation, is 
dangerous alike to the faith of the Gospel and the mor- 
als of the Christian community. 

As might have been anticipated from such a combina- 
tion of powers and labors, Universalism, beginning, for 
the most part, in the eastern sections of this country, 
increased there to a considerable extent, and is now 
wedging its way into many sections of the west. Already 
it has found a a local habitation and a name" in the vast 



LECTURES Ox\ UNIVERSALIS]**. 



49 



valley of the Mississippi. Wherever it prevails, faith, 
repentance, obedience to the Gospel, and all that lauda- 
ble concern for their souls that sinners should feel, and 
which the true Gospel never fails to make them feel, die 
away, and contention, strife, verbosity, speculation upon 
the nature of God, and an endless string of quiddles, 
quibbles, quips and quirks, arise in their stead. There 
may be exceptions here and there, but, as has been said 
of "angels visits," " they are few, and far between !" 

From the foregoing definition of Universalism, that 
I may lay before you a more extended view of the sys- 
tem, the following items are deducible, with, perhaps, 
others of less consideration ; all of which are owned and 
defended, as of vital importance, by its public pleaders. 

I. There is no punishment of any kind of any man, 
after death ; and all punishment is corrective and bene- 
ficial in its nature and design. Some allow a punish- 
ment after death, when pressed closely. 

II. The day of judgment, so frequently mentioned in 
the New Testament, is the Gospel dispensation, which 
did not fully commence till after the destruction of Je- 
rusalem. Christ began to come " the second time " then. 

III. The " quick and the dead," so often mentioned 
by the apostles, to be judged at the appearing and king- 
dom of Christ, are the " converted and unconverted," 
under the Gospel dispensation. 

IY. J esus Christ came in his kingdom, at, or shortly 
after, the destruction of Jerusalem, entered then upon 
the work of judgment, and has been judging " the quick 
and the dead," the converted and unconverted, ever 
since. 

V. Man cannot form a character, in this life, for the 
next ; but all will enter upon immortality then, whatever 
may have been their characters here — good, bad, or indif- 
ferent. 

VI. There will be a resurrection of all the dead some 

4 



50 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



time in the future ; but there will be no distinction af- 
terward^ between just and unjust — for all will be just. 

VII. God never pardons sins till after the sinner has 
suffered all the punishments he deserves. G-od remits 
sins, but not punishment. 

Such is a fair drawing of this seven-sided, or seven- 
angled, edifice : and it is my deliberate opinion, that if 
this number seven were multiplied into itself seven timeSj 
the amount would fairly represent the numerous turn* 
ings, twistings, tergiversations, contortions and vertici- 
ties, by which its friends strive to maintain its honor in 
public opinion. There is something in the human heart 
opposed to it, and that something is common sense ; for 
every man feels and judges within himself, that if a sys* 
tern of religion, professing to be a revelation from heav- 
en, requires endless explanations of its most prominent 
parts, so as to make them mean differently from what 
they plainly say, it had been better for man, and more 
honorable to God, if such professed revelation had nev- 
er existed. With me, therefore, it has long since pass- 
ed into an adage, and I think its wisdom and propriety 
are apparent to every unvitiated mind— "Any system 
of religion that requires to be upheld by evasions of 
the plain, common, and most easy and natural sense of 
Scripture, the translation being good, must be false." 

An instance or two of this, in reference to Universal- 
ism, will introduce the subject of our present Lecture. 
"Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown 
of life" (Rev. ii, 10), is a passage that will require all 
kinds of evasion in the mouth of a Universalist, to twist 
and turn it from its plain import, so as to make it work 
in with the system. It Would require thirty minutes, at 
the lowest calculation, to explain it, and half a lifetime 
afterward pro re nata, to defend and explain the expla- 
nation ! After all, however, there stands the passage ; 
and though it cannot be made plainer than it is as it 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



SI 



came from the mouth of the inspiring Spirit, still it must 
be put to the torture periodically, £nd pressed with an 
incubus of drivelling exegeses. That it means what it 
says, cannot be admitted for a moment, by Universalists ; 
for in this way it would seem to teach some connection 
between fidelity during life, and a crown of glory here- 
after. It must be made out somehow from this passage, 
that whether a man be faithful or unfaithful, believing 
or infidel, a saint or a sinner, till death, he shall have a 
crown of life ! This, we say, must be made out, or the 
passage silenced ! Nullification is an essential branch of 
Universalism ; nullification, I mean, of the Scriptures, 
and stultification is another branch, as we shall see in the 
progress of our prelections. 

You perceive, then, from the instance just given, that 
in silencing and nullifying plain, unfigurative passages 
of the Bible, Universalists have a long road before them, 
all the way up hill, and steep into the bargain. Their 
labors in heaving their difficulties up hill remind me of 
the similar labors of a hero of another name*, 

* fc With many a weary step, and many a groan, 
Up a high hill he heaves a huge round stone; 
The huge round stone, resulting with a bound, 
Whirls, leaps, and thunders down, and smokes along the 
ground 1" 

Our friends have never yet, it seems, rolled their 
body of difficulty to the hill-top. At a moment when 
they thought they had it extremely nigh the summit, 
and when a moment of rest for themselves, and triumph 
for their cause, was anticipated, all the props gave way, 
and the force from behind was unavailing. Thus, again 
and again, the mass has tumbled down the precipice. 
Determined, however, as if they had judged their Salva- 
tion depended on their efforts to keep the " matter in 
motion," again they gather around the prostrate diffi- 
culty, and again ply all their powers. Some poise the 



52 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



lever and fulcrum ; some work the wheel and tacle ; some 
address the rope and pullies ; others seize the screw, a 
species of enginery on which a little work may be ex- 
pended to greater advantage ; and others apply the 
weight of their own persons, and lubber-lift^ as we say, 
and every pound avoirdupois becomes an argument ! The 
mass moves. Again it is labored up the acclivity, and 
again, breaking all restraint, with lawless and angry mo- 
mentum, it rushes down to where it was before ! And 
thus our friends labor in a circle, and thus are likely to 
spend their lives in an endless round of labors that will 
do neither themselves nor us any lasting good, they 
themselves being judges. If I may drop the figure, 
though they explain the Scriptures, they will not stay 
explained ; and the same task must be performed over 
and over, without any manner of connection with the fu- 
ture destiny of mankind ! 

" O, sons of earth ! why will you seek to rise 
By mountains pil'd on mountains to the skies? 
All heav'n with laughter the vain toil surveys, 
And buries madmen in the heaps they raise !" 

The following section of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
is another among the many passages which Universalists 
have found in the way of their theory. It has been more 
and oftener crucified and put to an open shame than 
other passages of less decisive edge and bearing. Ev- 
ery effort has been made to blunt or evade it. I will 
state the passage, and then show the points aimed to be 
made from it : 

" For Christ is not entered into the holy places made 
with hands, the figures of the true ; but into heaven it- 
self, now to appear in the presence of God for us : nor 
yet that he should offer himself often, as the high-priest 
entereth into the holy place every year with blood of oth- 
ers (for then must he often have suffered since the foun- 
dation of the world) ; but now, once, in the end of the 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



53 



world, hath lie appeared, to put away sin by the sacri- 
fice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once 
to die, but after this the judgment ; so Christ was once 
offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that 
look for him shall he appear the second time, without 
sin, unto salvation." — Heb. ix, 24-28. 

To silence, nullify, or bribe, this evidence, the fol- 
lowing is the scheme of interpretation, as though the 
apostle, sent to explain Jesus Christ, needed more ex- 
planation than the will of his Master ! that the Jewish 
high-priest, typical of Christ as a priest, died, in some 
sense, while he officiated, and this is the death here in- 
tended by Paul — that "the judgment" after death was 
the blessing assumed to have been pronounced by the 
high-priest after he "came out" of the holy places and 
appeared to the people — that the second appearing of 
Christ began to take place upon the fall of Jerusalem, 
and that we now live under that second advent. You 
will suffer me, therefore, to translate the passage accord- 
ing to the Universalist meaning of it : "And as it is ap- 
pointed unto the Jewish high-priest to die once every 
year, but, after this, to pronounce the blessing upon the 
people at the door of the tabernacle ; so Christ was once 
offered to bear the sins of many ; and unto them that 
look for him shall he appear the second time, without a 

{ sin-offering, unto salvation," and, in fact, all, whether 
they look for him or not, shall obtain eternal blessed- 

' ness! 

We will now, for the purpose of seeing whether the 
I Jewish Law will help the cause of Universalism, or jus- 
i tify the above translation, take a cursory view of the 
priesthood of Aaron, with other kindred matters, and 
note, as we pass, wherein the mitred pontiff of Israel was 
a figure of our Lord. 

We may admit, at the outset, without any prejudice 
to the cause we plead, or any advantage to that of Uni- 



54 



LECTURES ON UNI VERBALISM. 



versalism, that Aaron was a type of Christ, in matters 
pertaining to the high-priesthood. But there is one fact 
to be noticed, relative to Christ, which is of immense 
value in these disquisitions, namely, thai his high-priest- 
hood commenced after he arose from the dead, not be- 
fore : for he was not a priest of the tribe of Levi, and 
after the order of Aaron, but of the tribe of Judah, and 
after the order of Melchisedec. Establish the fact, that 
J esus entered not his high-priesthood till he entered in- 
to the eternal world, to die no more— and this we have 
done by a simple allusion to the Epistle to the Hebrews— 
and then the assertion that the high-priest died once a 
year, when he went into the holy places, is found to be 
not only foolish, but impious, and in direct opposition to 
the plainest declarations of Scripture. 

We state it again, positively and emphatically, for the 
purpose of fixing attention supremely upon it, that the 

HIGH-PRIESTHOOD OF J ESUS NEVER COMMENCED TILL AFTER 

his resurrection. In whatever point, therefore, Aaron 
was a type of him, as a priest, that point is located be- 
yond the resurrection of our Lord, when he was made a 
priest by the oath of God, " consecrated forever more," 
and when he entered upon his office, " not by the law of 
a carnal commandment, but by the power of an endless 
life." If, then, as we have seen, and as Paul so fre- 
quently affirms, Jesus never died as a high-priest, but ? 
like Melchisedec, u ahideth a priest continually," the 
searching for something in the high-priesthood of Aaron 
that may be called his death, the peeping into the holy 
of holies to see him draw there his last typical breath, is 
a more fruitless search than ever made by alchymist for 
the philosopher's stone. If Jesus, the antitype, as high- 
priest, never died ; why try to establish a fact that never 
existed, that Aaron, the type, died, while he officiated, in 
the holy places ? ! 

But let us be more particular. The high-priest, in 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



55 



common with the inferior priests, had four garments, 
namely, the linen breeches, the linen coat, the linen gir- 
dle, and the bonnet or turban. The name of the tur- 
ban worn by the high-priest was called his mitre. But 
there were four other pieces peculiar to the high-priest, 
namely, the ephod, with its curious girdle, the breast- 
plate of judgment, the long robe with the golden bells 
and pomegranates at the bottom, and the golden plate 
which he wore on his forehead. See Exodus xxviii, pas- 
sim. 

Some of these articles require a more particular des- 
cription. The ephod was the outward garment of the 
high-priest, and was called the golden ephod, as both by 
the costliness of its materials and the superior workman- 
ship displayed upon it, it was distinguished from the 
linen ephod, of the inferior priests. It seems to have 
been a short, sleeveless coat, fastened to him by a girdle 
of the same material. On either shoulder were the 
names, six on a shoulder, of the tribes of Israel, en- 
graved in precious stones. Exodus xxviii. 

In all this, the Jewish high-priest appears to have 
been a type of Christ, in heaven, not on earth. Our di- 
vine High-Priest, "who is passed into the heavens," 
appears there with his peculiar and glorious vestments 
of immortality, his ephod of glory — or, as John says, 
"girt about the paps with a golden girdle" (Rev. i, 13); 
or, as described by Isaiah (xi, 5), with " righteousness 
the girdle of his loins." Again, Isaiah says, "the gov- 
ernment shall be upon his shoulder" (ix, 6) ; in allusion, 
perhaps, to the names of the tribes of Israel, on the 
shoulder-pieces of Aaron's ephod. Jesus has power, 
now in his divine pontificate, " to save to the utmost all 
them that come to God by him, seeing he ever liveth to 
make intercession for them."— Heb. vii, 25. His blood 
having been shed by violence at m the hour and power of 
darkness;" having himself been, as a lamb, sacrificed as 



56 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



it were at the door of the tabernacle ; rising from the 
dead, he, who had been the Lamb slain, now, as high- 
priest, carries "his own blood" into the true holy place 
on high. Thus he has " become the author of eternal 
salvation to all them that obey him ;" not to such as may 
all their lives disregard him, and die in their sins at last, 
as Universalism teaches. 

" The most considerable ornament of the high-priest 
was his breastplate, a rich piece of cloth, curiously 
wrought with gold, purple, etc., two spans long and a 
span broad, so that, being doubled, it was a span square. 
This was fastened to the ephod with wreathen chains of 
gold, both at top and bottom, so that the breastplate 
might not be loosed from the ephod. The ephod was the 
garment of service, the breastplate of judgment, an em- 
blem of honor : these two must by no means be separa- 
ted. In this breastplate, 1. The tribes of Israel were 
commended to God's favor, in twelve precious stones. 
Aaron was to bear 1 their names for a memorial, before 
the Lord, continually.' 2. The Urim and Thummim, 
by which the will of God was made known in doubtful 
cases, was fixed in the breastplate. Urim and Thum- 
mim, signify light and integrity. 17 — Exodus xxviii. Hen- 
ry in lac. 

The high-priest, thus ornamented, went, as Paul tells 
us, once a year, into the holy of holies, "not without 
blood, which he offered for himself and the errors of the 
people " — appeared before God for the whole camp of 
Israel, having the names of the tribes both on the ephod 
and breastplate (Exodus xxviii, 9, 10 — 17 — 21). Every 
Israelite, of whatever tribe, was thus represented in the 
holy places, his tribe and name on the ephod of service, 
"as with the engraving of a signet;" and his judgment, 
that is, his direction and guidance, on the breastplate, 
where light and integrity blended their rays to teach 
him, that while he received his guidance from God by 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



57 



oracle, lie was not to remain ignorant of the source of 
S its derivation*, and not to serve God without integrity 
of motive. 

In this, the high-priest typified the risen and immor- 
tal Jesus : for, though the camp of Israel were forbidden 
to come near, yet, as their representative was in the ho- 
j liest of all with their names and cause, they might re- 
joice : so the Messiah, having, by his blood, " obtained 
eternal redemption for us ;" having " become the author 
of eternal salvation to all them that obey him," entered, 
carrying with him that blood, u into heaven itself," and 
there makes intercession for us at the right hand of 
God — there antecedes all the faithful in the Royal Pal- 
ace — there, in a word, is " an Advocate with the Fath- 
er," bearing the names of all "his jewels" (Mai. iii, 17), 
on his ephod and on his breastplate, on his shoulder and 
1 on his heart. While on the earth the statutes and judg- 
ments of Jesus have gone forth, and his embassadors 
! are binding and loosing whatever ought to be bound or 
i loosed (Matt, xviii, 18), our High-Priest in the heavens, 
' in the light and integrity of his own divine Urim and 
' Thummim, judges upon the same causes, binds and 
; * looses, and, as it were, treasures up the records of judg- 
ment, " ready to be revealed in the last time." His em- 
3 bassadors below, in the holy place, note upon the docket 
* apostolic, the causes of all who hear the Gospel, and pub- 
lish their decisions ; while J esus above, in the place most 
holy — before a better than golden censer : before the ark 
of a better covenant than that written on tables of stone ; 
where there is better manna than fell in the Arabian 
desert to famishing Israel ; where there are cherubims 
6) of glory fairer and brighter than those which spread out 
t| their golden wings over the mercy-seat of the taberna- 
:«! cle ; where a better than Aaron's rod of priesthood for- 
cl ever buds and blooms with the freshness and fragrance 
)J and fruit of immortality — approves of their adniinistra- 



58 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



tion, calls himself "the Amen" for this very reason (Rev. 
iii, 14 ; 2 Cor. i, 20), and pledges his power, wisdom, and 
veracity, to maintain their decisions when he shall ap- 
pear in all his glory. In this it is only the saints who 
can rejoice : for now they have " boldness to enter into 
the holiest, by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living 
way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail, 
that is to say, his flesh : and having a high-priest over 
the house of God," they " draw near with a true heart, 
in full assurance of faith, having" their "hearts sprin- 
kled from an evil conscience, and " their u bodies washed 
with pure water." — Heb. x, 19-22. As God accepted 
the Jewish nation by sacrifices made at the door of the 
tabernacle, Aaron carrying the blood, afterward into 
the holiest place annually ; so we, coming first to the al- 
tar, then to the laver, then to the shew-bread, candle- 
stick, etc., or, to speak without a figure, coming first to 
Jesus, by faith in his blood, then obeying him according 
to the order given to his apostles, entering thus into the 
church like the inferior priests entered the first depart- 
ment of the tabernacle, and, receiving all the immuni- 
ties of the the Christian organization, are said to bt 
" accepted in the Beloved," who is already for us a har- 
binger or " forerunner " in the celestial abodes. — Eph. 
i, 6 ; Heb. vi, 20. 

Much has been said, written, and conjectured, by the 
learned, respecting the Urim and Thummim of Aaron's 
breastplate. It was, it seems, because of Urim and 
Thummim that that breastplate was styled the breast- 
plate of judgment ; and light and integrity might well 
entitle it to that denomination. The difficulty, there- 
fore, does not consist in understanding the nature and 
use of Urim and Thummim, for these are as apparent as 
those of the other articles of dress and of office ; but in as- 
certaining how, and of what, they were composed. This, 
perhaps, we shall never be able to know, and it is unimpor- 



LECTURES ON UNI VERBALISM. 



59 



tant. There appear to have been symbols of light and in- 
tegrity or perfection on this very curious breastplate ; and 
hence, while it served for an oracle at which inquiry was 
made in case of emergency, it seemed to own a fact long 
afterward asserted by Paul, that " perfection " was un- 
attainable "by the Levitical priesthood." — Heb. vii, 11. 
The breastplate, we say, with Urim and Thummim, be- 
came an oracle, and the judgments obtained from it were 
in all cases decisive and final. That it was called the 
" breastplate of judgment " from this fact, and not be- 
cause the high-priest came out of the tabernacle and 
passed judgment upon the people en masse, or even indi- 
vidually, is proved beyond all cavil by the following 
Scripture : "And he (Joshua) shall stand before Eleazar, 
the priest, who shall ask [judgment] for him after the 
judgment of Urim before the Lord : at his word shall they 
go out, and at his word shall they come in, he and all 
the children of Israel with him, even all the congrega- 
tion." — Numb, xxvii, 21. Here the successor of Moses 
was appointed by the judgment of Urim, and all the re- 
maining journeyings of the camp ; together with every 
lovement of Joshua, for or with the chosen tribes, were 
indicated by the same judgment. Every one of these 
judgments was obtained "before the Lord," that is, by 
the high-priest while he was in the holy places. Of the 
j nature of these decisions we shall hear more presently. 
When the camp of Israel should travel ; when it should 
remain stationary ; when it should go out or come in, 
| make war or conclude peace; or when it should pass 
j over the Jordan — were important matters, involving the 
interests of the whole nation ; and from the light and in- 
tegrity of this breast-plate of judgment, these decisions 
were sought and found. 

The matters thus far detailed, seem incapable of be- 
ing misunderstood. Take, however, another passage : 
"And thou shalt put in the breast-plate of judgment, 



60 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS^, 



the illuminations and perfections 1 ''— (the TJrim and the 
Thummim. these names being undefined in our common 
version)— -"And they shall be on Aaron's heart when he 
goeth in before the Lord: and Aaron shall bear the 
judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart be- 
fore the Lord continually." — Ex. xxviii, 30. Now, the 
question is, what was "the judgment of the children of 
Israel upon the heart of Aaron, before the Lord?" We 
may answer, without any violation of truth, that it was 
not any judgment that Aaron passed (for he never pass- 
ed any such at the door of the tabernacle) upon the peo- 
ple " when he came out," as Universalism assumes, from 
the holy places. On the contrary, we are here told that 
he bore their judgment on his heart when he went in be- 
fore the Lord — that the judgment was before the Lora\ 
not before the people. It was, then, a judgment of, or 
concerning, the children of Israel, in reference, not as to 
what they should do in worship, for there were laws and 
a ritual regulating that ; nor yet as to whether oblations 
had been received, for these were appointed by law ; 
but a decision, as it is expressed, " when they should 
go out, and when they should come in," etc., there be- 
ing laws, for every other matter, made and provided. 

Again. The judgment here mentioned, is not that 
of civil causes ; for there were tribunals specially ap- 
pointed for these, in which the Levites were not exclu- 
sively judges, as any one may see by reading the five 
books of Moses. Under the judges and kings there 
were tribunals of justice : but the oracle of Urim and 
Thummim was not consulted in matters of mere litiga- 
tion and civil pleadings. Evidence, in such causes, was 
as necessary among the J ews as it now is in our own 
courts of judicature. 

Once more. The judgment here borne "on the heart 
of Aaron, before the Lord, continually/ 5 called the "judg- 
ment of," or concerning, " the children of Israel;" was 



■ 

i 



LECTURES ON UISTV E R S ALISM. 



6! 



not the pronouncing of pardon upon them by the high- 
priest, or any one else ; for the high-priest had no such 
duty to perform. To say that Aaron thus passed sen- 
tence upon the people, on his return from the holy place 3 
is to contradict matters of fact in the J ewish law ; for the 
people did not have to wait a whole year for assurance 
of forgiveness * from the mouth of the high-priest, but 
had that assurance at any time while the daily sacrifices 
continued. There was a yearly atonement made for the 
priests themselves, for the people, and for the holy 
things (Lev. xvi) ; but these are the very sacrifices con- 
cerning which Paul says that in them " there is a re- 
membrance made again of sins every year" (Heb. x, 3) ? 
so that the Israelites in the wilderness, if they under- 
stood their own law, knew what Paul so long afterwards 
told their children, that it was "not possible the blood 
of bulls and of goats should take away sins " (Heb. x, 4). 

There was, nevertheless, a species of pardon, a na- 
tional, ceremonial remission, enjoyed by the Israelites; 
a purification which never reached the conscience, or 
made it perfect ; and the best that can be said of it, is, 
that it, and the means of acquiring it, were figures of 
purification and its means, under the High-Priesthood 
of the Messiah. But their remission, such as it was, 
belonged not to the priest, either high or inferior, to 
pronounce upon them. This pronouncing of pardon by 
priests, had its origin in other times and among other 
people. There were laws regulating forgiveness in Ju- 
daism, and when these were complied with on the part 
of the applicant, he knew that his sins were forgiven as 
certainly as he knew he had made his offering or that 
an offering had been made for him. Strange, that laws 
should be enacted to be obeyed in order to pardon, and 
yet that the applicant should be made to depend on the 
sentence of a priest before claiming the blessing ! What 
will men not do when hard pressed in a bad cause 1 



62 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS^. 



But for what purpose did the high-priest go into the 
holy place once a year with the blood of others ? I will 
tell you : Into the first department of the tabernacle the 
common or inferior priests went, constantly "accom- 
plishing the service : but into the second [space, or holi- 
est of all] the high-priest went, alone, once every year, 
" not without blood, which he offered," in that holy place, 
" for himself and the errors of the people : the Holy 
Spirit this signifying, that the way into the holiest 

OF ALL WAS NOT MADE MANIFEST WHILE AS THE FIRST 

tabernacle was yet standing." The meaning, there- 
fore, of the high-priest's annually going in the holiest of 
all, was, that the children of Israel might know that the 
observances of their law reached not, in reality, into the 
secret of salvation from sin, but as a figure, even the 
priesthood of Aaron could do no more than indicate an- 
other prjest, whose pontificate was then vailed in mys- 
tery. Paul, that great commentator on the promises 
and laws of the antecedent economy, says, in his Epistle 
to the Galatians : " Wherefore the law was our school- 
master unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 
But after that faith has come, we are no longer under a 
schoolmaster " — (Gal. iii, 24). Every bleating calf, or 
kid, or ram, or heifer ; every girdled priest, in garments 
white and clean, bonneted for service, and sprinkling 
the warm blood of sacrifices ; every candlestick of gold, 
and laver of brass, or "badger's skin dyed red;" each 
department of the tabernacle, and the furniture of each ; 
even the copies of the Law written in the divine auto- 
graph, in perpetual memorial before God, in the holiest 
of all ; Aaron's rod that budded, the pot of manna, the 
golden censer, the cherubims of glory shadowing the 
mercy-seat ; and the annual introgression of the high- 
priest behind the vail, alone in his glory — all were les- 
sons of the pedagogue teaching, by figures, the substan- 
tialities of " the age that was to come." Jesus, when he 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS]!!. 



63 



went through his own vail, that is. when he passed be- 
yond his flesh, rose to God, and in immortality took the 
blood he shed while a mortal, and with it entered into 
heaven itself ; threw back a mantle of perfect light upon 
all the intricate machinery of the Law, and explain- 
ed, in letters of glory, the priesthood of Aaron and 
Melchisedec. All the Jews, under the Law, were mi- 
nors ; were under tutors and governors till the time ap- 
pointed of the Father, and differed nothing from ser- 
vants, though lords of all (Gal. iv, passim ; Rom. iii, 
passim) ; and had they understood the nature of their 
economy, they would have received their Messiah with- 
out a murmur. 

While, however, the entrance of the high-priest, once 
a year, into the holiest of all, showed " that the way into 
the " true " holiest of all was not manifest while the first 
tabernacle was yet standing," the people of Israel did. 
nevertheless, regard him as their representative " before 
the Lord continually," and rejoiced in him after the pe- 
culiar nature of their institution : for, as we have seen, 
he bore their judgment, that is, their direction, constant- 
ly ; received oracles for them ; and they were enabled, 
by his ministry, to know when to go out, when to come 
in— as a nation — when to travel, and when, in fine, to 
do every thing that was required of them, as a congrega- 
tion, a "church in the wilderness " (Acts vii, 38). They 
knew Aaron to be alive in the holiest place, the proof 
of which was, they heard the music of the golden bells 
that fimbriated the bottom of his flowing robe. Wheth- 
er these bells all sounded in unison, or whether there 
was a diapason that embraced the diapentes, diatessarons, 
etc. ; we have no means of knowing. Probably, as Mo- 
ses was " learneji in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, 
and was mighty in words, and in deeds (Acts vii, 22), 
and was, besides, divinely inspired, the science of music, 
so famous in every age, was not entirely overlooked in 



64 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS^. 



this instance. Those golden bells may have been so dis- 
posed on the garment, and so constructed in reference 
to their tones, that, by moving the garment orderly from 
side to side, a unique and peculiar air may have been 
performed. Be the matter as it may, the people heard 
the sound of Aaron while he was in the holiest place, 
and when he came out. Now, be it observed, that Aaron 
made this music while in and while out of the holy place, 
lest he should die! Will you hear the Law? "And it 
shall be upon Aaron to minister ; and his sound shall be 
heard when he goeth in unto the holy place, before the 
'Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not" (Ex. 
xxviii, 35). Universalist clergymen tell us that Aaron 
was dead while in the holy place; but Moses tells us 
that he was not only alive, but that the sound he made 
while there saved his life ! ! Which shall we believe ! % 
But the miserable cause we are here ferreting out, gains 
nothing by assuming that Aaron here died typically, 
and will gain nothing till it can be proved that his life, 
as high-priest, was typical of the death of Jesus. But, 
as this is among the things that " are impossible with 
men," Paul having already, as we have seen, decided on 
that subject, it remains to say, that Universalism is thus 
excommunicated from the holy of holies ! 

One remark more upon the judgment of Urim, and 
we have done with that subject. That the breastplate 
of judgment served as an oracle to give directions or 
judgments in national, not in civil or purely ecclesi- 
astical matters, is further evident from the following 
facts : 

When about to die, Moses blessed the tribes of Israel 
in that very pathetic valedictory recorded in the 33rd 
chapter of Deuteronomy. Of the " tribe of Levi he said, 
Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one] 37 
that is, as commentators say, Let thy perfections and 
thy lights be with thy high-priest ; let the judgments or 



lectue.es on univeesalism. 



65 



directions which he shall deliver from the oracle in his 
breastplate, guide thee in all thy ways. 

We find some instances in which, besides those already 
metioned, this judgment of Urim was sought in national 
affairs. Saul, in great fear and perplexity at sight of 
the Philistines, inquired for judgment in many ways, but 
was baffled in all ; for " the Lord answered him not, nei- 
by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets" (i Samuel 
xxxii, 6). We quote the place to show that, however 
unsuccessful an impious king was in receiving the judg- 
ment of Urim, it was the established practice in Israel 
to seek direction in this way, in matters emergent, nev- 
ertheless. 

That such was the use which, from the times of the 
tabernacle, the Jews made of the high-priest's breast- 
plate, is still further evident from the fact, that after 
their captivity and upon their return, when a doubt 
arose as to the genealogy of. certain priests, the Tirsha- 
tha, or governor, decreed that all doubtful persons as un- 
holy should be put from the priesthood. The account 
of the matter is remarkable : "And the Tirshatha said 
unto them that they should not eat of the most holy 
things, till there rose up a priest with Urim and with 
Thummim," from whose oracular response in the case 
there could be no appeal, or which would settle the ques- 
tion forever (Ezra ii, 63). 

So much for the ''-breastplate of judgment," and Urim 
and Thummim, which entitled it to that name. The 
remaining articles of vestment of the high-priest, the 
robe of the ephod and the golden plate worn on his fore- 
head, on which was written, holiness to the Lord, are not 
necessary to be described, in this place. Enough has 
been said of the golden bells, and of the mitred priest 
within the vail, we think, to set Universalists hunting 
after some other death than that of Aaron in the sanc- 
tissimus locus ! It will not now do to say, "it is appoint- 
5 



66 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS]*!. 



ed unto the high-priests once a year to die, but after this 
the judgment !" " O tcmpora, O mores? 1 or, as we may 
say, in reference to Universalism, O Aaron, and O Mo- 
ses ! 

Well, then, we have seen and admitted that Aaron 
was a type of Christ, in relation to the high-priesthood. 
But how, and wherein, has been fairly stated : but that 
the matter may be summed up in few words, so as to be 
easily remembered, I remark: Aaron had robes "for 
glory and for beauty ;" Christ, as a priest, is glorified, 
"made higher than the heavens," and, as seen "coming 
in his kingdom," wore on his countenance a glory as of 
the sun, and, upon his person, raiment shining and glis- 
tering, exceeding white as snow, such as no fuller on 
earth could imitate (Matt, xvii; Mark ix; Luke ix). 
Aaron was called of God : Christ is called of God as 
was Aaron. Aaron went once a year into the holy of ho- 
lies, with the blood of beasts : Christ went into heaven 
itself, with his own blood. Aaron bore the judgment 
or direction of the children of Israel on his heart before 
the Lord in the holiest place: Christ bears our judgment 
or direction, our names and our cause, on his heart in 
the true holy place, if wc belong to the royal priesthood, 
and issues his oracles by an agent or embassador, whom 
he has sent for that purpose, the Holy Spirit ; and this 
Holy Spirit, that nothing might be wanting, deposited 
the oracles in " earthen vessels," called apostles, who 
have declared the judgments in all the world. While 
Aaron was in the holiest place, he made a peculiar mu- 
sic with the golden bells aforesaid, by which the people 
knew he was alive, though he stood in the constituted 
presence of J ehovah : Messiah, though " passed into the 
heavens " and " at the right hand of God," and " though 
now we see him not, but believe," assures us by "the 
joyful sound " we hear, that " he ever liveth to make 
intercession for us" — we hear a music infinitely tran- 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



67 



scending the dulcet tones of Aaron's golden bells — the 
music of immortality chimes upon our ear, and we are 
even allowed, by faith divine, to catch angelic lyres and 
send the pealing anthem along eternity, swelled by the 
tributary praises of sinners redeemed by blood ! Aaron 
appeared before Grod with the symbols of light and in- 
tegrity over his heart in the Urim and Thummim : Je- 
sus appears before the glorious throne, the light and 
integrity itself, and has pledged all the fidelity of his 
name, the amen, for the full performance of every oracle 
he has spoken from heaven. Aaron was anointed to 
the service with the holy oil of consecration: Jesus 
was " anointed with the oil of gladness above his fel- 
lows," with the holy Spirit of God, which was put upon 
him without measure. Aaron could not remain in office 
by reason of death: but Jesus, because he ever lives, 
hath an immutable priesthood, "and is able to save, to 
the utmost, all them that come to God by him." 

"Once in the circuit of a year, 
With blood, but not his own, 
Aaron, within the vail, appear'd 
Before the golden throne : 

" But Christ, with his own pow'rful blood, 
Ascends above the skies, 
And, in the presence of our God, 
Shows his own sacrifice. 

"Jesus, in thee our eyes behold 
A thousand glories more 
Than the rich gems and polish'd gold 
The sons of Aaron wore/' 

Still, it is assumed by Universalists, that Aaron was 
typically dead, while he was in the holiest place ! To 
make out their cause from the text we are considering 
(Heb. ix, 27), they have searched for something to call 
death, in the service of Aaron's pontificate. Well, it 
would not do to say that the priest died in the ram or 



68 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS!*!. 



bullock, for there is no hint of such a thing in all the 
law of Moses. It would not do to say the scape-goat 
(Levit. xvi), that bore away the sins of the nation " into 
a land not inhabited," died; for there was no order to 
kill, but, on the contrary, to " let it go " and take care of 
itself! Nor would it do to say, the inferior priests died 
typically, for they were types, not of Christ, but of Chris- 
tians I What, then, is to be done for something to call 
the death of Aaron % After searching a long while, as 
the very best that could be done in a case so desperate, 
impelled either by ignorance or a determination to " han- 
dle the word of God deceitfully" (we trust the former), 
it was resolved, as the high-priest went once a year into 
the holiest place, to call this entrance into the holy of ho- 
lies, death ! 

But, just here, more difficulties entangle Universal- 
ism than we would at first imagine could find their way 
into the holy of holies. For Aaron, while he is typical- 
ly dead and buried, " bears the judgment of the children 
of Israel on his heart, before the Lord, conti7iually /" 
While he is dead and buried, presents incense and burns 
it ! While he is dead and buried, sprinkles blood upon 
the sacred furniture of the place ! While he is dead and 
buried, wears the golden plate, the ephod, the robes pon- 
tifical, and receives oracles by Urim and Thummim ! 
While he is dead and buried, the people in the outer 
court, as evidence of the fact that he is dead, hear the 
chiming of the golden bells, " the sound of Aaron " as 
he waves the belled and pomegranated robe to and fro ! 
So, then, Aaron is dead. "But after this the judg- 
ment !" But you ask, here, if Aaron could do all this 
while typically dead, what can he not do when he typi- 
cally comes to life ? We shall see. 

All at once, Aaron rises from the dead, that is, conies 
out of the holy place, and appears " alive after his pas- 
sion !" Still, all the time he is coming out, and after he 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



69 



is out, the same music of the golden bells, heard all the 
time he was dead and buried, as the evidence of his 
death, continues ! The onyx stones of the ephod, that 
shone with peculiar splendor while he was dead, nay, 
even while he was dying, now carried out on his shoul- 
ders by the same actions that caused his death, namely, 
his putting one foot before the other, emit not an addi- 
tional ray ! The four rows of gems on the breastplate, 
the sardius, topaz, carbuncle, the emerald, sapphire, dia- 
mond, the ligure, agate, amethyst, the beryl, onyx, jas- 
per (Ex. xxviii, 17-20), all continue as they were before ! 
The mitre and plate, the long robe and linen breeches, 
are all the same in his resurrection that they were in 
his death and burial ; only there appears this difference, 
that Aaron did nearly all the work while he was dead 
and buried, and found little or nothing to perform after 
his resurrection ! The whole assumption that Aaron 
died typically, is thus shown to be supremely ridiculous. 

If our Universalist friends understood the nature of 
the priesthood of Christ, they would subject neither 
themselves nor Aaron to these imputations. They seem 
never to have reflected that Christ was not a high-priest 
when he died — that it was no part of the priest's busi- 
ness, as such, to die — and that Jesus never entered up- 
on the duties of his office, as high-priest, till he had been 
raised from the dead by " the glory of the Father." They 
ought to have learned long ago, that he was made a 
priest " by the word of the oath which was since the 
law," and that this word took effect upon his resurrec- 
tion. He was slain, not as a priest, but as a lamb; and, 
afterwards rising from the dead, made a priest after the 
order of Melchisedec, and not at all interfering, " on the 
earth," with the arrangements of Aaron (Heb. viii, 4), 
he took his own blood and offered it before the throne 
of God as the price of eternal redemption. Thus he 
had " somewhat to offer," even that " precious blood n 



70 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



which had been spilt by murderers, and ran down in 
purple tides upon the rugged cross ; and thus he offered 
it in the holy of holies on high. 

We have now seen what sort of a death Aaron died 
in the holy place, according to Universalism : but as it 
is said in the text, a but after this the judgment," it be- 
comes necessary to convert Aaron into a judge after his 
typical resurrection ! But, as Moses has said nothing 
of Aaron's judging the people once a year upon his re- 
turn from the sanctuary, but has said something about 
blessing them on some occasions, there is room for anoth- 
er assumption, namely, that this blessing was pronounced 
annually, and was the post mortem judgment intended. 
Heb. ix, 27. 

Let us see. You will find the form of this blessing 
recorded in the sixth chapter of the Book of Numbers. 
It follows: "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 
Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying. On this 
wise shall ye bless the children of Israel, saying unto 
them, The Lord bless thee and keep thee : the Lord 
make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto 
thee : the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and 
give thee peace. And they (Aaron and his sons) shall 
put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will 
bless them." Can it be made out, from this passage, 
that Aaron, as high-priest, pronounced this blessing an- 
nually, and that it is the after-death judgment ? 

Respecting the first, that the high-priest was commis- 
sioned to bless the people, it is true only in part ; for 
the sons of Aaron and the inferior priests had the same 
commission and power. And that the blessing was an 
annual affair, is wholly wanting in proof. Though the 
high-priest might bless, and, doubtless, on some occa- 
sions did, the inferior priests generally performed this 
service, as we may learn from other passages. "At that 
time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi to bear the 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM, 



71 



ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord 5 
to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, unto this 
day " (Deut. x, 8). Here, then, this work of blessing is 
seen to appertain to the whole tribe of Levi, and that 
blessing had been their custom from the commencement 
of the legal ceremonies till the day that Moses penned 
the above passage, a space of more than thirty-nine 
years ! In the first passage, the commission to bless is 
given to Aaron and his sons : in the second, to the 
whole tribe of Levi, so that the two places perfectly har- 
monize. 

We have no account in the Pentateuch as to the time, 
place, and manner, of conferring the above blessing ; 
but Bishop Pierson tells us, that the Jews had a tradi- 
tion that the priests blessed the people only at the close 
of the morning sacrifice : so that it seems to have been 
a daily and not an annual duty of the priests. Be this 
as it may, one thing is certain, that those benedictions 
were, for the most part, made by the inferior priests, 
and very frequently, as there were hundreds of them 
who held the commission. Whether those blessings 
were pronounced at the door of the tabernacle, upon all 
the people collectively at the daily sacrifices, or private- 
ly upon individuals at other times and places, is nowhere 
specifically said. One thing is certain, that the form of 
the blessing throughout runs in the singular number, 
"the Lord bless thee" etc., which does not much favor 
the notion that the benediction was pronounced upon 
all the people collectively ;. still the pronunciation of it 
did not appertain to the high-priest, ex officio, any more 
than to the whole tribe of Levi, ex officio I Here, again* 
Universalism is stranded. 

But, it will be asked, did not Aaron bless the people 
on one occasion, when he came out of the tabernacle? 
We respond, yes, he did so once jointly with Moses, at 
the setting up and consecration of the tabernacle, as we 



72 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



learn at large, in the Book of Leviticus (ix, passim) ; but 
lie as much blessed them before he went in as when he 
came out! If so, it seems to have been appointed unto 
Aaron, at this time, to die, but before this the judgment ! 
It is said of Aaron, before he went in, that " he lifted up 
his hand toward the people and blessed them;" and, af- 
ter this, that " Moses and Aaron went into the taberna- 
cle of the congregation, and came out and blessed the 
people. And there came a fire out from before the Lord 
and consumed upon the altar the burnt-offering and the 
fat ; which, when all the people saw, they shouted and 
fell on their faces." 

We notice, here, that this was a special, not a general, 
occasion — the commencement of the tabernacle service; 
and the glory of the Lord appeared, as Moses had pre- 
dicted : for, in the general, afterwards, the fire and glo- 
ry did not appear, any more than the people shouted 
and fell on their faces. The reason of the shout and 
fall was, not that Aaron judged them, pronouncing their 
sins forgiven — the assumption of Universalists — but be- 
cause "they saw the glory of the Lord," as Moses had 
predicted. Here, again, the vessel of our friends is 
stranded, and must remain so till it can be proved that 
Aaron blessed the people more after he came out of the 
holy place than before he went in, and till it can be 
proved that all his blessings were judgments ! What is 
to be done with the whole tribe of Levi, with their bless- 
ings, that is, their judgments, must be left to the dis- 
cretion and judgment of our Universalist contemporaries. 

But, you have a right to ask, did not the coming out 
of Aaron, from the tabernacle, prefigure some event in 
the Christian economy? To this we say, perhaps it did. 
But if it adumbrated anything, it was the return of our 
High-Priest from the heavenly places " without a sin-of- 
fering unto salvation." We know that the going in of 
Aaron was a figure of the entrance of J esus into the true 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



n 



holy places ; and his coming out may represent the cor- 
responding event ; though the Jewish economy was " not 
the very image of the things" under the Gospel (Heb. 
x, 1): so that, where we have no guide but analogy, we 
must advance cautiously. We may say, that as, when 
Moses and Aaron came out of the tabernacle, " the glory 
of the Lord appeared," fire came out of the divine cham- 
ber and consumed the offering and the fat, and "devour- 
ed" even the the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, for 
their wickedness, immediately afterward (Levit. x, 2) ; 
so the Lord Jesus, when he leaves the royal chamber to 
revisit the earth, " shall be revealed from heaven with 
his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on 
them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of 
our Lord Jesus Christ " (2 Thess. i, 7, 8). If so, Univer- 
salism is stranded in another place, as this figure makes 
the return of Jesus as literal as his departure, and fixes 
the judgment after the death of those to be judged. 

To conclude this department of our subject, you will 
please bear in mind, that if Aaron's entering into the 
holiest place typified the death of J esus, this makes the 
sanctuary a figure of the grave; whereas, Paul makes it 
a type of the Christian church and of heaven, the holy 
place below, and the most holy above. Again : If Aaron's 
going in signified the death of Christ, his coming out 
signified his resurrection. But it is of no use to multi- 
ply words, as Paul makes Aaron's introgression a type 
of Christ carrying his own blood into heaven itself, to 
appear in the presence of God for us. One fact is worth 
a thousand arguments, and ten thousand figures unex- 
plained. Thus, friends, after a long pilgrimage to the 
wilderness of Sinai, and a circuitous route of forty years 
with the chosen tribes, we have seen that Aaron's rod 
has not lost its virtue, that it still buds, and still has 
power to swallow all the magical serpents that Jannes 
and J ambres can throw down before it ; or, to alter the 



74 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS]^ 



figure, that Universalism gains not, but looses, by eon» 
suiting the pontificate of Aaron. The Lord answers it 
not, " neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets." 
That Aaron was typically dead, in the holy of holies, 
we have seen to be an assumption and a hoax, or that, 
if he was, his typical death prefigured the " endless life n 
of Christ ! 

Respecting the second item in the priestly benediction 
(for you will suffer me to return to this subject), name- 
ly, that the blessing committed to Aaron and his sons, 
was the post mortem judgment asserted in Hebrews ix, 
27, a brief remark is all that it deserves. The word 
judgment occurs, in the whole compass of both Testa- 
ments, some three hundred and ninety times, and has 
many shades of meaning ; but, like other words, all its so 
called numerous meanings are resolvable into one. The 
word is taken to represent the decision of a judge ; the 
spirit of wisdom and prudence ; remarkable punish- 
ments; the chastisement which God brings on his peo- 
ple for their good ; the solemn trial of the last day ; the 
laws, statutes, and commands of God ; the punishment 
inflicted on Christ for our sins ; the doctrines of the 
Gospel ; the justice and equity of the Divine administra- 
tion ; God's purposes concerning nations and persons ; 
powers of adjusting differences and controversies among 
Christians; sentiments or opinions ; counsel, advice, etc.j 
etc. Dr. Webster defines the term thus : " the act of 
judging ; the act or process of the mind in comparing 
its ideas to find their agreement or disagreement, and 
to ascertain truth. The faculty of the mind by which 
man is enabled to compare ideas and ascertain the rela- 
tion of terms and propositions. The determination of 
the mind, formed from comparing the relation of ideas, 
or the comparison of facts and arguments. In Law, the 
sentence or doom pronounced in any cause, civil or crim- 
inal, by the judge or court by which it is tried. The 



LECTURES ON UNI VER 8 ALISM. 



75 



right or power of passing sentence. Determination ; de- 
cision ; opinion; notion." 

It is remarkable that the terms bless, blessing, blessed- 
ness, etc., occur about as many times in the Bible as 
judge, judgment, etc., and that the one, in no case as far 
as we are advised, is used for the other. God is said to 
bless when he bestows goods and prosperity, temporal 
and spiritual; when he consecrates or sanctifies any 
one ; when he empowers and invests with office and 
emolument. Christ blesses when he gives thanks to his 
Father; when he commends others to Grod in prayer; 
when he turns men from their wickedness. Men are 
said to bless when they praise Grod for his goodness ; 
when they give thanks for benefits and mercies received ; 
when, by Grod's appointment, they pronounce and fore- 
tel future joys and prosperity ; when they pray to Gk>d in 
the behalf of others ; when they reckon themselves happy ; 
when they applaud themselves in view of their present 
prosperity ; when they flatter themselves with hopes of 
impunity, as if Grod does not notice their sins, or will 
not punish them for their rebellion. And, finally, Grod 
has promised to bless such, and such only, as obey him 
and keep his commandments. To bless is thus defined 
by Dr. Webster : " to pronounce a wish of happiness to 
one ; to express a desire of happiness. To make hap- 
py ; to make successful ; to prosper in temporal concerns. 
To make happy in a. future life. To set apart or conse- 
crate to holy purposes ; to make and pronounce holy. 
To consecrate by prayer ; to invoke a blessing upon. To 
praise, to glorify for benefits received. To praise ; to 
magnify : to extol for excellencies." 

Such is a full and authoritative definition of the terms 
to judge and to bless. It now remains to determine their 
synonymity, if they have any. It is asserted that the 
terms, at least, as they occur in the text (Heb. ix, 27, 
28), are synonymous. Again, then, let us read the pas* 



76 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS!*!. 



sage — again let us surrogate "men 3 ' into high-priests , 
places, and high-priests into "men's" places, and bless- 
ing into the place of judgment. Are you prepared for 
the passage % Hearken ! a And as it is appointed unto 
the J ewish high-priests once every year to die 5 but af- 
ter this the blessing ; so Christ was once offered to bear 
the sins of many !" This, besides producing many other 
novel and mysterious doctrines, would make the " bless- 
ing " on Israel to come but once a year; whereas, Aaron 
bore their judgment " on his heart, before the Lord, con- 
tinually" and the whole tribe of Levi had the same 
commission to bless with the same blessing at all times ! 

But before we adopt a rule of interpretation, we must 
be assured that it is a good one. Well, the Greek verbs, 
makarizO) to bless, and krino^ to judge, must be capable 
of being used the one for the other at least in a number 
of places ; and krisis, judgment, must be used for eulo- 
gia or makarismos, blessing or blessedness, in an equal 
number of places. But, the question rises, in how ma- 
ny places would we be safe in using the one word for 
the other? When we begin, where shall we stop? And 
if judgment means blessing in one place, may not bless- 
ing mean judgment in another? But we will see: 

" Wo unto thee, Chorazin ! Wo unto thee, Bethsaida ! 
* * * it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, 
in the day of Blessing ! than for you S" — "And thou, 
Capernaum, who art exalted unto heaven, * # * * 
it shall be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of Bless- 
ing ! than for thee !" — "And whosoever shall not receive 
you nor hear your word, when ye depart out of that 
house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I 
say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of 
Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Blessing ! than for 
that city!" (Matt, x and xi, passim,) 

"A good man, out of the good treasure of the heart, 
bringeth forth good things, and an evil man, out of the 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



77 



evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things. But I say un- 
to you, that every evil word that men shall speak, they 
shall give account thereof in the day of Blessing /" (Matt, 
vii, 36.) " The men of Nineveh shall rise in the Bless- 
ing ! with this generation, and shall condemn it ! The 
queen of the South shall rise up in the Blessing ! with 
this generation, and shall condemn it !" 

u The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of 
temptations, and to reserve the unjust to the day of 
Blessing! to be punished!" (2 Pet. ii, 9, 10.) "But the 
heavens and the earth which are now, by the same Word 
are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of 
Blessing ! and perdition of ungodly men !" (2 Pet. iii, 7.) 
" God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them 
down to hell (tartarus), and delivered them into chains 
of darkness, to be reserved unto Blessing ! — unto the 
Blessing ! of the great day !" (2 Peter ii, 4 ; Jude, 6.) 

Let us now turn the rule round and set it working 
the other way, if it will. If judgment means blessing, 
blessing will mean judgment. Shall we see ? 

"And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, 
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour : for he 
hath regarded the low estate of his handmaid, for, from 
henceforth, all generations shall call me judged /" (Luke 
i, 48.) "And Joseph and his mother marveled at those 
things which were spoken of him. And Simeon judged, 
them, and said unto Mary, his mother, Behold, this 
child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Is- 
rael " (Luke ii, 33, 34). 

u Judged are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the king- 
dom of heaven ! Judged are they that mourn : for they 
shall be comforted ! Judged are the meek : for they shall 
inherit the earth ! Judged are they who hunger and 
thirst after righteousness : for they shall be filled ! Judg- 
ed are the merciful : for they shall obtain mercy ! Judged 
are the pure in heart : for they shall see God ! Judged 



78 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



are the peace-makers : for they shall be called the chil- 
dren of God ! Judged are they who are persecuted for 
righteousness' sake : for theirs is the kingdom of heav- 
en ! Judged are ye when men shall revile you and per- 
secute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you 
falsely, for my sake !" (Matt, v, 3-1 1) 

Listen to David, if this be a good rule : " I will judge 
the Lord who hath given me counsel — In the congrega- 
tion will I judge the Lord — I will judge the Lord at all 
times. Thus will I judge thee while I live — 0, judge 
our God ; make his praise to be heard — Judge the Lord, 
ye his angels — Judge the Lord, all his works, in all 
places — We vriH judge the Lord from this time forth and 
forever more— Judge the Lord, house of Israel ; judge 
the Lord, house of Aaron — house of Levi, ye that 
fear the Lord, judge the Lord — Judge the Lord, my 
soul, and all that is within me, judge his holy name I" 
(Psalms, passim.) 

Now, however far the blessings and judgments of 
God may imply, suppose, or run into each other ; howev- 
er the fact be, that eras of judgment to some, have been 
eras of mercy to others ; however many, in the day of 
judgment, may obtain mercy, owing to the peculiar 
powers of the Christian economy, wherein " mercy re- 
joiceth against judgment;" or, however far one word 
may partake of the meaning of another, and many words 
do this to some extent ; still, the words judgment and 
blessing are so universally expressive of things opposite 
in their nature, that they cannot, as we have seen, be 
used by way of interchange, without destroying the 
sense. This fact 5 while it amounts to a positive inhibi- 
tion of the use of the one for the other, stamps upon 
the face of Universalism the stigma of shame and con- 
fusion. 

The causes which have led our Universalist friends to 
pay so much respect to the pontificate of Aaron, are very 



LECTURES ON UNIVEItSALISM. 



79 



obvious. They know full well, that a plain man of com- 
mon sense and common honesty, reading the passage 
under review, would conclude at once that men are ap- 
pointed to come to judgment after death. The passage, 
therefore, must be evaded, in the manner we have seen 
in this Lecture. If "me?i n can be made to mean high- 
priests under the Law ; if " once to die " can be meta- 
morphosed so as to mean " to die every year;" and if " the 
judgment " after death can be made out to mean the 
blessing of Aaron, but not of the tribe of Levi ; the eva- 
sion of this immense labor is complete : and yet, any one, 
with a moderate understanding of the Epistle to the He- 
brews, and the peculiarities of Judaism, may easily de- 
monstrate, as we have now done, that the evasion is not 
supported by the priesthood of Aaron any more than 
by the laws of the moon. 

There is another assumption, which demands some no- 
tice, as Universalism depends upon it as one of its cardi- 
nal pillars ; namely, that " men " in the text, as appointed 
to die, are the J ewish high-priests. The assumption has 
been sufficiently exploded already; but, as some Greek 
criticisms are offered upon the place, it becomes us to 
examine these criticisms, and drive the system away by 
its own weapons. 

It is asserted that the original phrase, " tois anthro- 
pois," should be translated the men, and that " the men" 
means the high-priests. Our response is, that if the 
phrase tois anthropois does not signify the high-priests 
in some other places, it is absurd and improper to 
give it that meaning here. Now, be it observed, that 
never once, in the whole compass of the Bible, has the phrase 
this meaning. The terms have never been so appropri- 
ated, either in the Law and Prophets, or in the Apoch- 
rypha, or in the New Testament. In all the Epistle to 
the Hebrews, when Paul wishes to indicate the high- 
priest, he mentions him distinctly, and defines his busi- 



80 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS]*!. 



ness. But the better way to test the correctness of this 
pedantic criticism is, to give its assumed meaning in a 
few other places, where the phrase tois anthropois occurs 
in New Testament usage : 

• "Ye are the salt of the earth : but if the salt have 
lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted ? It is thence- 
forth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be (kai 
katapatcisthai hupo ton anthropon) trodden under foot 
of the Jewish high-priests!" (Matt. v. 13.) "Let your 
light so shine (emprosthen ton anthropon) before the Jew- 
ish high-priests^ that they may see your good works, and 
glorify your Father who is in heaven!" (Matt, v, 16.) 
" Take heed that ye do not your alms [emprosthen ton 
anthropon) before the Jewish high-priests ; otherwise ye 
have no reward of your Father who is in heaven !" (Matt, 
vi, 1.) "For if ye forgive (tois anthropois) the Jewish 
high-priests their trespasses, your heavenly Father will 
also forgive you : but if ye forgive not (tois anthropois) 
the Jewish high-priests their trespasses, neither will your 
Father forgive you your trespasses. 

Again : " Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would 
that (oi anthropoi) the Jewish high-priests should do to 
you, do ye even so to them : for this is the Law and the 
Prophets!" (Matt, vii, 12.) This would make quite a 
contraction of the golden rule ! 

"And his disciples came to him and awoke him, say- 
ing, Lord save us,, we perish 1 And he saith unto them, 
"Why are ye fearful, ye of little faith? Then he arose 
and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a 
great calm. But (oi de anthropoi) the Jewish high-priests 
marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even 
the winds and the sea obey him?" (Matt, viii, 25-27.) 
The high-priests on board the ship, at this time, appear 
to have treated our Lord better than they commonly did, 
either before or afterwards ! Curious fellows, these high- 
priests. 



LECTURES ON UNI VERBALISM. 



81 



u But tliat ye may know that the Son of Man hath 
power on earth to forgive sins — (then saith he to the 
sick of the palsy) — Arise, take up thy bed, and go un- 
to thine house. And he arose and departed to his house. 
But when the multitude saw it, they marveled and glo- 
rified God, who had given such power (tois anthropois) 
unto the Jewish high-priests /" (Matt, ix, 8.) And now, 
that I think of it, this must be the very place to which 
Paul alludes in the Epistle to the Ephesians, where he 
says of Christ: "But unto every one of us is given 
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 
Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he 
led captivity captive, and gave gifts (tois anthropois) un- 
to the Jewish high-priests !" (Eph. iv, 8.) These gentry 
seem even very far to have transcended Aaron, with all 
his mitres, vests, golden bells, pomegranates, ephod, and 
Urim and Thummim ! I should like to know, whether, 
after this, they "died once a year/' and then passed 
judgment upon their fellow-citizens ! 

Again : " Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me (em- 
prosthen ton antltropon) before the Jewish high-priests, 
him will I confess also, before my Father who is in 
heaven. But whosoever shall deny me (emprosthen ton 
anthropon) before the Jewish high-priests, him will I also 
deny before my Father who is in heaven" (Matt, x, 32, 
33). " But I say unto you, that every idle word that 
{pi anihropoi) the Jewish high-priests shall speak, they 
shall give account thereof in the day of judgment I" 
(Matt, xii, 36.) 

"Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The 
kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man who sowed 
good seed in his field : but, while (Icathcudein ton anthro- 
pon) the Jewish high-priests slept, his enemy came and 
sowed tares among the wheat,, and went his way " (Matt, 
xiiij 24). 

Once more : It would be endless to specify every in- 
6 



82 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



stance of the use of this phrase ; one more shall suffice. 
We select it from the Epistle to the Ephesians (iii, 2-5) : 
" If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of 
God which is given me to you-ward ; how that by reve- 
lation he made known to me the mystery as I wrote 
afore in few words ; whereby, when ye read, ye may un- 
derstand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which 
in other ages was not made known unto (tois uiois ton 
anthropon) the sons of the Jewish high-priests, as it is 
now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the 
Spirit!" 

You say, this is enough ! Well, I will strike not anoth- 
er blow at tois anthropois, till I find that our friends are 
harping on it again. Permit me to say, only, that you 
here perceive Paul did not aim to designate a particular 
class of men, or that, if he did, he used a phrase used 
by the other sacred writers, and by himself elsewhere, to 
designate men in general. You will please to bear in 
mind, also, that Paul comes nearer designating a partic- 
ular class of men, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, by the 
use of anthropoid without the oi, by the term men : with- 
out the before it, than he does by tois anthropois : but, 
from the whole Epistle, and, indeed, as we have said, 
from the whole Bible, an instance of such an accepta- 
tion of the word cannot be produced, either with the ar- 
ticle or without it. The whole smatter into the Greek 
is made for no other purpose than the raising of a fog by 
which to blind the eyes and " deceive the hearts of the 
simple." 

We now conclude by an observation on the judgment 
mentioned in the text. The analogy stated here, £ ■ as 
it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the 
judgment ; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins 
of many," etc., does not lie between the act of Christ's 
dying, and that of the dying of other men ; but between 
his being once offered, and their once dying. As he was 



LECTURES ON UNI VERBALISM. 



S3 



offered once, they die once. But if our friends will have 
it, that the analogy lies between the death of Christ and 
the introgression of the high-priest within the vail, it 
will remain for them to say what analogy there is be- 
tween crucifixion on a Roman cross and that most glo- 
rious moment of Aaron's life ! But there is no room 
for quibbling here, as the "once" that men die, answers 
to the " once " that Christ was offered, as Paul most pre- 
cisely declares. 

" But after this the judgment." Our friends assume, 
as we have seen, that the judgment was pronounced by 
the high-priest under the law; but Paul teaches that 
this whole affair belongs to Christians, not Jews, and 
that the judgment is appointed for them that " once 
die," not to be pronounced by them as judges ! Univer - 
salism makes them that die to be the judges, namely, the 
priests ; but Paul makes them come to be judged. The 
word judgment is nominative case to the verb is appoint- 
ed, understood ; thus : "And as it is appointed unto men 
once to die, but after this the judgment [is appointed 
for them] ; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins 
of many ; and unto them that look for him shall he ap- 
pear the second time without a sin-offering unto salvation." 
Every man of common sense, whether he understands an 
ellipsis or not, understands here, that the very persons 
that die once are not to judge, but to be judged, afterward. 

Thus, friends, the passage in question, I think you 
will now say, is fairly redeemed from the use of Univer- 
salism, and stands teaching, in all its imperishable force, 
a truth so much ridiculed by the scoffers of the last 
times ; a truth, however, that the most abandoned and 
flagitious find it difficult to banish from their minds, 
That the Almighty, Eternal, and ever Blessed God, will 

BRING MEN TO JUDGMENT AFTER DEATH, AND REWARD OR PUN- 
ISH THEM ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS, GOOD OR EVIL. May 

he grant that we all may find mercy of him in that day ! 



84 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS!!. 



LECTURE IV. 

SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 

Having already, in Lectures I and II, illustrated the 
tendency of Universalism, and shewn it to be evil, and 
only evil continually ; and in Lecture III having fol- 
lowed its advocates through their long exegeses of Heb. 
ix, 27, 28 ; wherein we have seen their most wild and 
ridiculous (we might say impious) fancies ; we come now 
to another subject — a subject important on all hands and 
in all systems — the second advent of Messiah. Touch- 
ing this subject, Universalists generally take the follow- 
ing positions : 

I. Christ came the second time at the destruction of 
Jerusalem. 

II. When he came at the destruction of Jerusalem, 
he abrogated the Jewish polity, and made the Gospel 
dispensation the day of judgment. 

According to them, the Second Advent is, therefore, 
past, and the day of judgment is going on. Such is a 
fair and full view of their doctrine, touching these sub- 
jects. If we show, as we now propose to do, that all 
this is a mere fable, we shall not only have set these 
noisy geniuses to seeking other hiding-places for their 
error, but will have routed them by an original machi- 
nery which " the Orthodox" have not heretofore brought 
against them. We claim originality in the arguments 
we here present, and in the most perfect confidence of 
their truth, challenge the whole Universalist clerical 
corps to disprove them. We come, then, at once to the 
task. 

We shall not treat these subjects in the order of the 
above arrangement, but shall inquire, in the first place, 
whether Judaism ended at the destruction of J erusalem 
by the Roman army, or whether it divinely ended at the 
completion of Messiah's first advent, about forty years 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS?,!. 



85 



before. We shall make the discussion of this question 
the subject of a distinct prelection. And now we assert 
that Judaism ceased when Jesus finished his work on 
earth, for the following reasons : 

I. The sharpest rebuke administered by Paul to the 
Galatians, was spoken because they had begun to speak 
and act as though the Jewish religion had not been abol- 
ished. " 0. foolish Galatians," said he, " * * are ye 
so foolish? * * having begun in the Spirit, are ye now 
made perfect in the flesh?" having commenced by the 
Gospel, can you become perfect by the Law? He then 
tells them how long the Jewish polity lasted, and when 
it terminated : " Ordained by angels in the hands of a 
mediator, it was added because of transgressions till 
the seed should come to whom the promise was made " 
(iii, 19). After the advent, therefore, of this seed of 
Abraham, and the completion of the work which the 
Father had appointed him to perform for our salvation, 
Judaism ceased, and a better hope was superinduced. 

The first advent of our Lord, like other events, had 
its beginning and termination : and there was a point 
in his history at which it was fully completed — that 
point lay within the compass of the first commission he 
gave to his apostles. When he gave them their topical 
commission (Matt, x), it bound them, of course, to the 
land of Judea; and "verily I say unto you," said he, 
" ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the 
Son of Man be come" — Matt, x, 23. The coming of 
the Lord here mentioned, was, therefore, none other 
than the first, that is, the completion of the first, from 
the fact stated, that it would happen before the apostles 
should complete their preaching to the Jewish cities, 
and before the Gospel should be carried to the Gentiles. 
The Gospel was preached to all nations before the fall 
of Jerusalem. This coming, then, has no connection 
with the destructicn of Jerusalem, it not having been 



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LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



destroyed till after tlie apostles liad received, and acted 
under, their ecumenical or general commission. The 
topical commission, in substance, was this : Go not to 
the Gentiles, but to the J ews. The ecumenical : Go to 
all the Gentiles, beginning with the Jews. But, be- 
fore the end of the topical commission, Jesus comple- 
ted his coming, finished the work given him to do, and 
was ready to ascend to the Father. But this is by the 
way. 

2. The seed of Abraham, Christ, to whom the prom- 
ise was made, received in his own person the curse of 
the Jewish law (Gal. iii, 13), for the express purpose of 
bringing the promise made to Abraham upon as many 
as should believe among the Gentiles. But while " the 
fiery Law" of Moses cursed our Lord, he killed it ; his 
blood, poured out upon the tree, extinguished the fierce- 
ness of its indignation, and bought off every believer 
from the yoke of its bondage. Every effort, therefore, 
to extend the life of J udaism beyond the termination of 
the labors of Jesus for our salvation, I mean his suffer- 
ings, is an effort again to ' curse him with the Law of 
Moses, and again to put him to an open shame. If he 
died to kill it, and was cursed while he died, must it 
linger in life for forty years afterward, to uphold a quib- 
bling system of rotten theology, and not die, even then, 
till Jerusalem is trodden down of the Gentiles? If he 
died to abrogate it, does it nevertheless require him to 
come again to complete the abrogation in the days of 
the Emperor Vespasian? Or is the fall of a city the ab- 
rogation of an economy ? If so, the Law of Moses was 
abolished a time or two before, once at least, by Nebu- 
chadnezzar, and nearly another time, by Antiochus 
Epiphanes. If every time Jerusalem was sacked, Juda- 
ism was destroyed, yet still existed, we are at a loss to 
determine the propriety of trying any more to kill it in 
that way ! But if, since the death of J esus, it has lived 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



87 



in any form, it has been without divine authority, and is 
ranked with the commandments of men. 

3. The single fact that Judaism has been divinely 
abolished, was the reason that Paul reproved Peter for 
giving an apparent approval of it (Gal. ii, passim), and 
so warmly dissuaded the Galatians from leaning toward 
it. Though it had been appointed by divine authority, 
for purposes before stated, yet now, that it was abolish- 
ed, the observance of its precepts was nothing better 
than the observance of human institutions. " But now, 
after that ye have known God, or rather are known of 
God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly ele- 
ments whereunto ye desire to be in bondage ? Brethren, 
I beseech you, be as I am " — that is, be free from all the 
impediments of Judaism — "for I am as ye are" — that 
is, I have every inducement to practice Judaism that 
any man can have ; and yet, such is the comparative ex- 
cellence of the Christian religion, that I can by no means 
consent to leave the practice of its delightful duties for 
a moment. ft If, therefore, the Jewish Law had been of 
divine obligation, at the time Paul wrote the Epistle to 
the Galatians, he would not have spoken of it in the way 
he did. It had been a schoolmaster to point out the 
Messiah (iv, 24), " but after that faith is come we are no 
longer under a schoolmaster." So positive is Paul 
here, that he considers those Christians who had gone 
back to J udaism, as having expatriated themselves from 
the kingdom of favor, and " fallen from grace " (v, 4.) 

4. Paul wrote this Epistle about A. D. 52, while he 
was in Rome, as we gather from the general current of 
antiquity, some eighteen or twenty years before the de- 
struction of Jerusalem, by Titus. If it have any mean- 
ing whatever, in relation to the question under consider- 
ation, it teaches that Judaism had been destroyed, that 
is, abrogated and rendered null and void, some nineteen 
or twenty years before he wrote, by the first advent of 



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Jesus Christ God does not appear to have given hig 
law by a divinely appointed mediation, on the smoking 
and thundering summit of Sinai, and to have left it to 
Tbe destroyed by the devil and his angels in Titus and 
Vespasian. Paul had no idea of this, though he dwelt 
at Rome. In a word, the Jewish economy having been 
established by one divine interposition, behoved to be ab- 
rogated by another. The facts of the Gospel first, and 
their purport uttered in apostolic and evangelical dis- 
courses afterward, were the means of abolishing the Law, 
and of detaching the minds of men from it, if Paul may 
be believed in this Epistle. 

5. That Judaism ended before the destruction of Je- 
rusalem, and that Paul so believed and said, is apparent 
from the following documents. In the second chapter 
of the Epistle to the Ephesians, we have these words : 
" Wherefore, remember, that ye, being in time past Gen- 
tiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that 
which is called the Circumcision in the flesh, made by 
hands ; that at that time ye were without Christ, being 
aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers 
from the covenants of promise, having no hope and with- 
out God in the world ; but now, in Christ J esus, ye who 
were sometime far off, are made nigh by the blood of 
Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, 
and hath broken down the middle wall of partition be- 
tween us ; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even 
the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, to 
make in himself, of twain, one new man, so making 
peace ; and that he might reconcile both unto God in 
one body by the cross, having slain, the enmity thereby;" 
iii, 11-16. To this let us add a corresponding place in 
the Epistle to the Colosians : "And you being dead in 
your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he 
quickened together with him, having forgiven you all 
trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances 



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89 



that was against us, and took it out of the way, nailing 
it to his cross ; and having spoiled principalities and 
powers, ue made a show of tlieni, openly triumphing over 
them in it."— Col. ii, 13-15. 

Here we have several strong expressions, all going to 
show that Judaism, the whole Law of Moses by which, 
the J ews were distinguished from the rest of mankind, 
was completely done away by the Lord Jesus, at the 
completion of his first advent. If it be called w the en- 
mity" between Jew and Gentile, Jesus abolished and 
slew it. If it be called a " handwriting of ordinances " 
repugnant to the nations, Jesus blotted it out, or nailed 
it to his cross. If it be understood as included among 
"principalities and powers," Jesus triumphed over it, 
and showed his victory by the resurrection from the 
dead. From all which the inference is plain and inev- 
itable : for we cannot suppose, while we hold our reason, 
if the Jewish Law was broken down, abolished, slain, blot- 
ted out, and crucified, that it was, by Divine Providence, 
turned over to Titus and Vespasian to be destroyed by 
the sivord, forty years afterward. But, 

6. That the Jewish age ended with the completion 
of Christ's first mission, and not with the destruction of 
Jerusalem, is demonstrated by several passages in the 
Epistle to the Hebrews. Take the following: " If, there- 
fore, perfection were by the Levitical priesthood (for un- 
der it the people received the Law), what further need 
was there that another priest should rise after the order 
of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of 
Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is 
made of necessity a change also of the Law. # * There 
is verily a disannuling of the commandments going be- 
fore for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof ;"— vii, 
12-18. " In that he saith a new covenant, he hath made 
the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old, 
is ready to vanish away:" — viii, 13. "Now once, in the 



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end of the world (ton aionon, the end of the Jewish age), 
hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of him- 
self;" — ix, 26. " Wherefore when he cometh into the 
world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, 
but a body hast thou prepared me : in burnt offerings 
and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then 
said I, Lo I come (in the volume of the Book it is writ- 
ten of me) to do thy will, God ! Above, when he said, 
Sacrifice and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering 
for sin, thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein 
(which are offered by the Law) ; then he said, Lo I come 
to do thy will, God. He taketh away the first, that 
he may establish the second — x, 5-9. " Wherefore, we 
receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have 
grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with rever- 
ence and godly fear;"- — xii, 28. 

We ask now, when was the end of the Jewish age? 
Paul answers that J esus appeared in the end of it to put 
away sin. Jesus appeared, not forty years before the 
end of that polity, but "in the end" of it, and was, in 
that end, sacrificed for the sins of many. The Mosaic 
constitution was " the commandment going before," and 
which, Paul declares, had been disannulled before he 
wrote. Jesus could not be a priest on the earth, or 
while Judaism existed, as two divine laws of priesthood 
existing together, and over the same people, would have 
opposed each other. The law of the priesthood was, 
therefore, changed to suit the order of Melchisedec, and 
bring in perfection — Jesus " having obtained a more ex- 
cellent ministry." Finally — Jesus came into the world 
with a body prepared, by its sacrifice, so fully to do the 
will of God, as forever to render unnecessary the whole 
Aaronic service. In the volume of the Bible it had 
been so written. It was by his triumphant work, there- 
fore, that he folded up, and, as it were, laid aside, the 
whole of Judaism as such, " took it away," that he might 



LECTURES ON UNI VERS AXISM. 



91 



establish a better economy. So Paul taught his breth- 
ren in Judea, and comforted them in the present pos- 
session of a kingdom that could not be moved. Our 
apostle seems to have no thought that it was left to Ves- 
pasian and Titus to put an end to Judaism. This is a 
new thought, and owes all its turbid glory and inconsist- 
ency to the uneasy and distempered genius of universal 
scepticism, which cannot yet quite throw off all re- 
straints of religion. There are some who must have 
a syrup in which to drink the desired potions of infi- 
delity. 

7. To the same point we have another strong testi- 
mony in the Epistle to the Romans. A solitary extract 
from the seventh chapter, may suffice for the present. 
After showing that the woman is bound by the Law to 
her husband as long as he lives, and that if, while he 
lives, she should be married to another, she would be an 
adulteress, he adds : " My brethren, ye are also become 
dead to the Law by the body of Christ, that ye should 
be married to another, to him who is raised from the 
dead," &c. He adds, finally: "But now we are deliv- 
ered from the Law, that being dead, wherein we were 
held." 

Paul wrote to the Romans about A. D. 58. The Law 
had been dead about twenty-five years: of course, all 
who desired salvation were at liberty, to use Paul's 
words, "to be married to another." The very strongest 
term to denote the cessation of J udaism, is here employ- 
ed ; Paul says it had died. The argument is this : If 
the Law of Moses died by the body of Christ — if he 
spoiled it, nailed it to his cross, slew and broke it down, 
and took it out of the way ; and if Paul, referring to the 
transaction, records it as dead some quarter of a centu- 
ry before he wrote — -it does not seem likely that it came 
to life forty } r ears after its crucifixion, that it might be 
killed again by fire, sword, battering-rams, and pesti- 



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LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



lence, under Vespasian and Titus ! " Let him deny these 
arguments who can." 

The reader, long before this time, has probably in- 
quired, Why, and what of it? What importance is there 
in fixing so minutely the period of the abrogation of J u- 
daisrn? There is one reason, which comprehends all oth- 
ers, namely : By fixing the cessation of the legal econo- 
my at the point where, as we have seen, the apostles 
place it, we arrive at the conclusion which forever breaks 
down the assumption that the Gospel dispensation is the 
day of judgment ; as the apostles, it is well known, uni- 
formly speak of that day as future to the time in which 
they lived, which they could not have done had the 
judgment been begun at that time. And this is the 
best of all reasons. A few remarks more and our argu- 
ments are closed. 

That the Jewish age ended with the end of our Lord's 
first mission, is apparent from a few passages now to be 
adduced : 

1. Take the following: "But if the ministration of 
death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so 
that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold 
the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance— which 
glory was to be done away— how -shall not the ministra- 
tion of the Spirit be rather glorious ? For if the minis- 
tration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the 
ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even 
that which was made glorious, had no glory in this re- 
spect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that 
which was done away was glorious, much more that which 
remaineth is glorious. Seeing, then, that we have such 
hope, we use great plainness of speech : and not as Mo- 
ses who put a vail over his face, that the children of 
Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which 
is abolished;"— 2 Cor. iii, 7-13. 

2. In his first Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul hints 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



93 



the same thing : "All these things happened unto them 
(the children of Israel) for types 5 and they are written 
for our admonition, upon whom (ta tele ton ainon) the 
ends of the [Jewish] age are come;" — 1 Cor. x, 11. 

Comment seems unnecessary ; for we have no words 
to describe the termination of the Jewish polity, stron- 
ger than those here used by Paul. He could say no 
more than that it was abolished, and had been before he 
wrote any of his Epistles. But, as if to silence all de- 
mur — lest some should let in a conceit that Judaism was 
abolished partly by Jesus and partly by the Roman Ti- 
tus, and thus appear to have two or more ends — Paul is 
careful here to inform us that " the ends " of it, all its 
ends, be they many or few, had already come on him 
and his contemporaries before the date of this Epistle, 
A. D. 57. 

The sum of the whole matter, then, is this : If the 
Jewish polity lasted "till the seed should come to whom 
the promise was made" — "till the time of Reforma- 
tion 5" if, by the death of J esus, it was disannulled, taken 
away, made old, abolished, broken down, slain, blotted out, 
nailed to the cross, spoiled, and killed; who is there that 
will say that it remained, after our Lord's splendid work, 
and all the apostle's pointed language, for the Romans 
to unhinge and destroy it by fire and sword 1 ! He that 
would adventure upon so bold a hypothesis, for the pur- 
pose merely of maintaining a system which is a miserable 
mendicant at every gate of logic, and which blushes to 
look in the face of common sense, can have no regard to 
the facts or declaration of the Scriptures, and prates 
about he knows not what. He is subverted and sins, 
being condemned of himself. 

The way is now fully prepared for introducing the 
apostolic testimonies in reference to the day of judgment. 
It was, to them, a day confessedly in the future ; and, 
since, from the primitive age of the church to the pres- 



94 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



ent times, there has been no event that answers to the 
description we have of that day, it is equally manifest 
that it is future to us. Paul, for instance, in his fa- 
mous sermon at Athens, spoke of the day as future, and 
had no thought of the Gospel dispensation as that day: 
"And the times of this ignorance God winked at, but 
now commandeth all men everywhere to repent : because 
he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the 
world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath or- 
dained ; whereof he hath given assurance to all men in 
that he hath raised him from the dead;" — Acts xvii, 30, 
31. All, therefore, that related to the present time of 
the apostle, was the commanding of men to repent, and 
submit to the new order that obtained under the Gospel ; 
while to the momentous future was left and reserved 
that "eternal judgment" which is committed to Christ, 
and which is, indeed, one of the principles of his doc- 
trine; — Heb. 1-3, &c. 

Another example is at hand : " I charge thee, there- 
fore, before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall 
judge the living and the dead at his appearing and king- 
dom, preach the Word;" — 2 Tim. iv, 1, 2. This was 
spoken by Paul near the close of his life, when he was 
ready to be offered, and the time of his departure was at 
hand — after he had fought the good fight, finished his 
course, and kept the faith. And then, by the phrase 
"that day," he gives us to understand the same time he 
had just mentioned, "the appearing and kingdom" of 
Jesus Christ, as appears from what follows : " Henceforth 
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which 
the Lord the righteous judge will give me at that dayP 
What day? The day of "the appearing and kingdom" 
of J esus Christ our Lord. 

Take another instance, in conclusion : " But, after thy 
hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thy- 
self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the 



LECTUPwES ON UN1VERSALISM. 



95 



righteous judgment of God, who will render to every 
man according to his deeds — to them, who, by patient 
continuance in well doing, seek for glory and honor and 
immortality, eternal life : but unto them that are con- 
tentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrigh- 
teousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and an- 
guish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil ; of the 
Jew first, and also of the Gentile;" — Rom. ii, 5-9. 

We see, then, that God "will render eternal life" to 
the faithful, " in the day when God shall judge the se- 
crets of men according to" the Gospel. Every scholar 
knows that the phrase "eternal life" (zoeen aionion), is 
an accusative, and is made so by the transitive power of 
the affirmation "will render. 11 The time of the accom- 
plishment of the promise, as we have seen, is the day of 
judgment, called here, also, "the day of wrath," because 
sinners also shall be punished at that time. We con- 
clude, therefore, from this testimony, and much that 
we have purposely pretermitted, that the assumption, 
"the Gospel dispensation is the day of judgment," is an 
imposition on the hearers of the Gospel, and an insult 
to the consistency and good sense of the apostles, to 
say nothing of its impeaching them with dishonesty 
and hypocrisy. " Let him deny these arguments who 
can." 

Having now, as you will doubtless confess, fully and 
forever established the fact that Judaism was divinely 
annulled by the cross of Christ — having supported the 
point by an arch of logic sprung across the whole bog of 
Universalism, and spanning and girting it so closely, that 
any traveler may walk over in safety — we come now to 
calculate the consequences to that ill-fated and most un- 
reasonable system. And. 

I. If Judaism was crucified and died with Jesus, as 
Paul has affirmed, then Christ had not to appear a sec- 
ond time in order to abrogate it. 



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LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS!*!. 



2. If Judaism was annulled by the death of J esus, it 
follows that the New Dispensation was not set up till af- 
ter that event. But, 

3. We are informed by the Sacred History, that the 
New Economy was set up very shortly after his resur- 
rection. The Gospel was preached in all its freshness, 
power and authority. 

4. If Judaism was fully abrogated by the means and 
at the time stated by Paul ; and if the Gospel was fully 
preached, and the church fully organized, and the will 
of God fully declared, as we are informed ; then the as- 
sumption of Universalists is false, that the Gospel king- 
dom was not fully organized till after the destruction of 
J erusalem. 

5. And, finally — If Judaism ended, as we have seen, 
and the Gospel dispensation commenced as soon as the 
day of Pentecost — while it is cardinal with Universal- 
ism that the day of judgment commenced with the fall 
of J erusalem — it follows that the Gospel day is not the 
day of judgment, Universalists themselves being judges. 

To conclude — You will now perceive the dilemma in 
which we have caught Universalists. If they say that 
Judaism was not disannuled till Jerusalem was destroy- 
ed, Paul most flatly and peremptorily contradicts them 
with the foregoing evidence. If they admit its annul- 
ment at the point stated by Paul, two consequences fol- 
low, fatal to the whole scheme : first, that the second ap- 
pearing of the Lord did not happen at the sacking of 
J erusalem ; secondly, that the Gospel dispensation is not 
the day of judgment ; or, if it were, it happened forty 
years too soon for the scheme of Universalism ! Indeed, 
a third consequence attaches itself to the system, which 
is, that admitting the day of judgment commenced with 
the apostolic embassy, the apostles themselves appear 
never once to have thought their day the day of judg- 
ment, as they uniformly spoke of " that day" as future. 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!, 



97 



The above dilemma reminds me of another to which 
the same system is liable. With Universalists, God's 
foreknowing an event is the same as his decreeing it ; so 
that you will easily perceive that it is impossible for any 
man to please God, or obey him. Jehovah tells Adam 
not to eat of a certain tree ; but at the same time knew, 
that is, decreed, that he should eat of it. Hence, if the 
man eat not, he violates what God knew before ; if he 
eat, then he violates the decree embodied in words ! Re- 
specting all men, God tells them to do this or that ; but 
he foreknows, that is, decrees that they shall do all the 
evil in the world. If they sin, they violate his known 
and written will: if they sin not, they transgress his 
will that Universalists write about : so that, in either 
case, poor mortals are fated to sin, and to sin continual- 
ly ! God's secret will is, that they shall sin ; his revealed 
will, that they shall not. He forbids their sinning, and 
yet his foreknowledge has made it necessary ! Often 
have we said, and here say it again, the God of Univer- 
saiism, be he who he may, is a foolish, cruel, and unjust 
God, and a merciless and inflexible tyrant ! This charge 
has been sustained in our first and second Lectures, but 
will more clearly appear in the progress of our labors. 
We conclude the present Lecture by a quotation illus- 
trative of the true principles of salvation : 

41 Moral-almighty is the argument 
Of fact and evidence to sinners sent, 
But may resisted be. If men rebel, 
Nor will salvation on this principle, 
The Gospel 5 s still almighty to achieve 
Salvation to the sinners that believe. 
Almighty povv'r nor further goes, nor can, 
Or on the principles of God or man, 
Though fools abound and urge their stupid thought 
That God will save them if they will or not.—-" 



7 



98 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS!!!. 



LECTURE V. 

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

When the controversy between Christians and TJni- 
versalists, touching the second coming of Christ, is nar- 
rowed down and reduced to a single point, it is this : Did 
that second advent happen at the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem, or is it still future ? We devote the present Lec- 
ture to the discussion of this subject. We shall present, 
in the first place, a general view of the arguments of 
Universalists, by which they would define the second 
coming as past ; and show, in the second place, that all 
the Scriptures they rely on are perverted. This meth- 
od will bring the whole argument to a point to be easily 
apprehended. They depend mainly on the following 
Scriptures : 

1 . Matt, x, 23 : " But when they persecute you in this 
city, flee into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye 
shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son 
of Man be come. 

2. Matt, xvi, 27, 28. " For the Son of Man shall come 
in the glory of his Father with his angels ; and then he 
shall reward every man according to his works. Verily 
I say unto you, There be some standing here who shall 
not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming 
in his kingdom." 

3. Matt, xxiv, 32-34: "Now learn a parable of the 
fig-tree: When its branch is yet tender, and putteth 
forth leaves, ye know the summer is nigh ; so likewise 
ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is 
near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, this 
generation shall not pass till all these things be ful- 
filled." 

4. Acts i, 10, 11: "And while they looked steadfastly 
toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by 
them in white apparel, who also said, Ye men of Gali- 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



99 



lee. why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? This same 
Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so 
come in like manner as ye have seen him go into 
heaven." 

5. Jas. v, 7-9 : " Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto 
the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman wait- 
eth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long pa- 
tience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. 
Be ye also patient ; establish your hearts : for the com- 
ing of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against 
another, lest ye be condemned ; behold the Judge stand- 
eth before the door." 

6. Heb. x, 36, 37: " For ye have need of patience, that, 
after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the 
promise.. For yet a little while, and he that shall come 
will come, and will not tarry." 

7. 1 Pet. iv, 17: " For the time is come that judg- 
ment must begin at the house of God : and if it first 
begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey 
not the Gospel of God % And if the righteous scarce- 
ly be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner ap- 
pear." 

There are other passages on which Universalists de- 
pend for proof that the second coming of the Lord is 
past, and that the day of judgment commenced so early 
as the reign of the Emperor Vespasian, and is now in 
progress ; but the above are most used, and are consid- 
ered as their strongest authority. It shall be our busi- 
ness now to examine these texts in the order we have 
presented them. 

I. On Matt, x, 23, we have the following remarks : 
the place does not and cannot refer to the second advent 
of Christ, for the following reasons: 1. The Messiah 
was in this place giving his first commission to his apos- 
tles, in which he positively enjoins them to confine their 
labors to the territory of the Jews : u Go not into the 



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way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans 
enter ye not: hut go rather to the lost sheep of the 
house of Israel; and as ye go, preach, saying, The king- 
dom of heaven is at hand." Then follow the works they 
were to perform by the power of their Master : they 
were to heal the sick ; to cleanse the lepers ; to raise the 
dead ; to cast out demons ; and to do all this freely, 
without expecting any monied remuneration further 
than their daily needs as missionaries upon so unique 
an embassy. — See from verse 5 to 10. Then follow 
some further instructions. — See from verse 11 to 15. 
From verse 16 to 22 there is manifestly a series of pre- 
dictions touching the reception the apostles should meet 
both among Jews and Gentiles, when the time should 
come for them to leave Judea. But, in verse 23, the 
one more immediately claiming our attention, the Lord 
adds another prediction relative to the time when his 
work should be completed, and reveals that time in the 
plainest words : " Ye shall not have gone over the cities 
of Israel," on the mission I have now put you upon, 
"till the Son of Man be come," or have completed his 
mission. 2. We notice here, that the coming predicted 
to take place before the apostles completed their Jewish 
tour, cannot have happened at the sacking of Jerusalem 
or afterward, because it was to take place before they had 
gone round the cities of Israel; and they completed this 
tour about the time that Jesus suffered. Indeed, though 
he commanded them to go out on this mission, they did 
not, for the most part, go alone, as he made much of the 
tour with them. We find him with them in Judea prop- 
er, as also upon all its confines. Whatever, therefore, 
may be the sense of the text, it does not mean that the 
Lord intended to come the second time at the sacking 
of J erusalem — the coming, whatever it was, took place 
before the apostles went to the Gentiles. However, as 
they had gone not only over the cities of Israel, but into 



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all the world, and had preached the Gospel, to speak in 
the comprehensive language of Paul, " to every creature 
which is under heaven," before the sacking of Jerusa- 
lem — if Universalism be true in saying that the second 
advent happened then, or at some other time now past — 
it charges the lips of truth with uttering a false prophe- 
cy: for Jesus said that he would be come before his 
apostles had completed their tour of Judea. 3. "VVe 
have this advent, therefore, confined within a very nar- 
row compass. The destruction of Jerusalem, or after- 
ward, or thirty years before, are all out of the question. 
Peter went to the Gentiles about A. D. 40, or 41, more 
than thirty years before the fall of Jerusalem : therefore 
this advent predicted by Jesus, was before the year 40. 
Certainly, then, we shall be able to find this coming, and 
to determine whether it were the first or second. It 
was not the second : for it happened before Jesus went 
away— it happened while he was with his disciples, and 
before they had completed their Hebrew embassy. It 
was plainly, therefore, his first coming, of which Jesus 
here spoke — the completion of all the grand work he 
came to do — the end of his mission from the Father. 
When Jesus said, " it is finished" his prophecy in the 
text was accomplished. The whole is as if Jesus had 
said, " Most assuredly I tell you, you shall not have com- 
pleted your mission through Judea, before I shall have 
completed the object for which I came into the world, 
namely, to suffer and die for the sins of mankind." All 
this appears with the greater clearness, if any man will 
ask himself what he means by the first coming of Christ. 
Does he mean his birth only ? or does he mean to be 
understood as intending the whole compass of the ter- 
restial labors of Jesus'? The whole of his work, cer 
tainly. Well — how natural, under such circumstances, 
was it for the Lord, in this way, to point to the close of 
his mission, and to the glorious events that were to follow! 



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So much for the text in question. TJniversalism is 
here fully routed from its usual application of this pas- 
sage. Hereafter it will not dare to mention Jerusalem's 
catastrophe ; or if it dare, it will not dare to adduce this 
place in proof that the Lord came then. We should 
like to see what Universalists can do with the above mat- 
ters, which must prove most troublesome to their theo- 
ry. But we anticipate no answer. With them, the 
least said is soonest mended, on this topic. " They would 
not stir the matter at all. But it is due to the public 
that we keep the nakedness of this system of noisy un- 
belief fully exposed. It will not be long, if we have 
judged rightly, or have any tact in reading symptoms, 
before the leading Universalists will shift their ground 
touching the second advent at Jerusalem, as well as re- 
specting their application of the pasage, our examination 
of which is here closed. 

II. We come now to that noted text which is in the 
mouth of every dabbler in Universalism, and which is 
perpetually crucified and put to public shame by a class 
of men that are more than commonly ignorant of all that 
pertains to the Bible-— namely, Matt, xvi, 27, 28. It is 
not worth while to be frighted by noise : we come, then, 
to look at the place in the light of itself and of its con- 
text, and we shall see that the Universalist application 
of it is more gross and absurd, if possible, than that of 
the foregoing passage. 

In order to grasp the subject fully, you will turn to 
Matt, xvi, 24, and read from that point to xvii, 13, tak- 
ing in all the parallels found in Mark viii, ix, and Luke 
ix, 23-26. Let me, therefore, give you all the points 
and facts gathered from these sources, if we can, in a 
complete historical view. The passage in question is not 
a distinct apothegm or proverb, having no special mean- 
ing. It has a meaning, and but one, and this is to be 
gathered from the facte and prophecies with which it 



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103 



stands connected, and but for which it has no meaning 
at all. Take the whole context thus : 

a And when he had called the people unto him, with 
his disciples also, he said unto them all, Whosoever will 
come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his 
cross, daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save 
his life shall lose it ; hut whosoever shall lose his life for 
my sake and the Gospel's, the same shall find (and save) 
it. For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the 
whole world and lose his own soul — lose himself, or be 
cast away? Or what shall a man give in exchange for 
his soul % Whosoever, therefore, shall be ashamed of me 
and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, 
of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he 
cometh in his own glory and in the glory of his Father, 
with the holy angels. For the Son of Man shall come 
in the glory of his Father, with his angels ; and then 
shall he reward every man according to his works. And 
he said unto them, Verily I tell you of a truth, there be 
some of them that stand here who shall not taste of 
death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with 
power — the Son of Man coming in his kingdom And 
it came to pass, after six days, (or) eight days after these 
sayings, Jesus taketh with him Peter and James and 
John his brother, and leadeth them up into a high 
mountain apart by themselves, to pray ; and as he pray- 
ed he was transfigured before them, and the fashion 
of his countenance was altered — his Jfe.ce did shine as 
the sun ; and his raiment was white and glistening — 
shining exceedingly white as snow, as the light, so as no 
fuller on earth can imitate ! And, behold ! there appear- 
ed unto them two men talking with Jesus, who were 
Moses and Eiias ; who appeared in glory, and spoke of 
his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. 
But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with 
sleep ; and when they were awake they saw his glory, 



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and the two men that stood with him. And it came to 
pass as they departed from him, Peter answered and 
said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here ; 
and if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one 
for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias — for he 
wist not what he said, what to say, for they were sore 
afraid. While he thus spake, behold, there came a 
bright cloud and overshadowed them : and they feared 
as they entered into the cloud. And, behold, there 
came a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my be- 
loved Son, in whom I am well pleased : hear ye him. 
And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, 
and were sore afraid And Jesus came and touched 
them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. And sudden- 
ly, when the voice was past, Jesus was found alone — 
when they had lift up their eyes (and) looked round 
about, they saw no man any more, save J esus only, with 
themselves. And as they came down from the moun- 
tain, Jesus charged them that they should tell no man 
what things they had seen, till the Son of Man were 
risen from the dead. And they kept that saying with 
themselves, questioning one with another, what the ris- 
ing from the dead should mean. And they kept it close 
and told no man in those days any of those things which 
they had seen." 

Upon the whole passage, take the following remarks : 

1. The Lord solemnly declares, that in the day of his 
coming he will own and bless all those that, during life, 
had followed him daily, and will be ashamed of all such 
as had denied or been ashamed of him. 

2. He states the moving and thrilling fact, that he 
will certainly come again and be crowned the universal 
Monarch, without telling the precise time when he will 
come. 

3. He states, in effect, that when he shall thus in fact 
come, he will reward every man according to his works. 



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and that perforce every human being shall see him and 
his glory. 

4. He states, however, with equal clearness, that only 
"some of them" that heard him on that occasion — in 
fact, that only " some" of his disciples — and, narrowing 
down to a number within closer limits, that only u some" 
of his apostles, before death, should see what he prom- 
ised, namely, the Son of Man coming in his kingdom, or 
the kingdom of G-od coming with power. 

5. We then have the history of Jesus as seen com- 
ing in his kingdom, and the fact stated that Peter, 
J ames, and John, saw him in his glory before they tast- 
ed death. 

6. In order fully to redeem his promise that " some " 
of his hearers should not die before they should see him 
in his glory, he submitted to a divine metamorphose or 
transfiguration, so that glory might be seen by the 
living. His face became as the sun, most gloriously re- 
splendent ; his garments contracted an unearthly radi- 
ance such as no fuller could imitate ; and glorified per- 
sons filled his train. Moses, the Lawgiver of Israel who 
had received the law through ranks of angels, seems to 
gather the rolls of his judgments and place them at the 
feet of Jesus : Elijah, who had been borne heavenward 
in a chariot of fire, himself transfigured and translated 
to heaven, submits his commission to the Son of Grod : 
and the voice of the Eternal is heard on Tabor, " This 
is my beloved Son: hear him." 

7. That the actual coming in his kingdom of our tri- 
umphant Master, should be after, not only his own res- 
urrection, but after that also of his followers, appears 
with sufficient clearness from the charge he gave his 
apostles as thev came down from the mountain, that "the 
vision' 1 oi itis glory and kingdom which tney had just 
seen should be told to no man till after the resurrection 
of Messiah, when he should have reached his immortal 



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state. Such is a fair analysis of the whole place in ques- 
tion. A few reflections will close our remarks. 

Our Messiah distinctly affirms two truths in the 
verses in dispute. One is, that he will come in his own 
glory, and in the glory of the Father, with his angels, 
when he will reward every man according to his works. 
The other is, that some who heard his discourse, should 
not die till they had seen his kingdom coming, or seen 
him coming in his kingdom. Now, the question is, did 
Peter, James, and John, at the transfiguration, see the 
promised advent ? It is not promised that they should 
see every man rewarded according to his works, but that 
they should see him coming in his kingdom. Well — did 
they thus see him ? Did they see him at the head of his 
kingdom, ,and in his glory, before they tasted death? 
To say they did not, is to contradict the evangelical tes- 
timony, which says, Moses and Elias " appeared in glo- 
ry," and that Peter and his companions " saw his glo- 
ry." And Peter himself will surely be allowed to tes- 
tify in the cause. Speaking of J esus, he says : " He re- 
ceived from God the Father honor and glory when there 
came such a voice from the excellent glory, This is 
my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this 
voice which came from heaven we heard when we were 
with him on the Holy Mount" (2 Pet. i, 17, 18). And 
be it observed, that Peter here defines the transfigura- 
tion to be " the power and coming of the Lord Jesus 
Christ." We learn hence, to the utter discomfiture of 
Universalism, that the metamorphose or transfiguration 
of J esus, was afforded for the express purpose of exhib- 
iting his glorious kingdom, and his manner of entering 
upon it. That most singular of all events has no other 
meaning or design. Think of the purport of the word 
transfigure — think of the houseless and humble Jesus, 
one moment vailed in poverty, oppressed with want, 
hunted and persecuted ; and the next, shining in light 



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107 



and clothed in the glory he had with the Father before 
the world was—and then ask, Why all this, if it be not 
to show his coming in his kingdom, as he had promised 
to " some " of his followers ? Yes, he was seen as King, 
a We were eye-witnesses of his Majesty," says Peter. 
" They saw his glory," said Luke. Peter saw these di- 
vine glories before he tasted death; but he tells his 
brethren, u I think it meet, as long as I am in this tab- 
ernacle, to stir you up. # * I will endeavor that ye 
may be able, after my decease, to have these things 
(the very things, by the way, that he saw in the trans- 
figuration) " always in remembrance," as " no cunning- 
ly devised fable." With James and John he was per- 
mitted to look into the mysterious future for ages on 
ages, and to behold what no other men ever did, the 
kingdom of God coming in all its triumphant and celes- 
tial glory. 

Let no one question the power of God. He was able 
to set the eternal Age before the vision of living men. 
He was able to draw up the most distant events to the 
immediate view of those chosen men, as he did after- 
ward to the vision of Paul, and made him gee things 
glorious, and hear things unutterable, though a thous- 
and years might roll between. God can blot out all dis- 
tance and all time, as he did when he transformed his 
Son for the purpose of showing him in his beauty and 
glory. An event which Daniel and the prophets saw 
only in perspective, overwhelmed the three apostles in 
radiant light. An event which, had it been left to the 
tardy revolution of years to superinduce, would not have 
been seen even at the present hour, was in a moment, by 
almighty power, transferred across the intervening gulf 
of ages : and Jesus himself was sent forward beyond the 
curtain of time, and the eyes of his witnesses followed 
him ! Certainly, never was there so curious, so unpre- 
cedented an event ! By it, the apostles were made cer- 



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tain from actual sight, of the existence of a kingdom that 

had been prepared for the righteous " from the foundation 
of the world and, in the transaction, they became confi- 
dent that an " abundant entrance " would be administered 
into God's everlasting kingdom, to all the pure in heart. 

Without a quibble or far-fetched argument, therefore, 
you see how most fatally and perfectly Universalism is 
driven from the use of the text in question ; how it with- 
ers and dies in the light of the transfiguration — and 
how it skulks away from the glory of the cloud, or is an- 
nihilated by the glowing immortals that shine in God's 
kingdom at the appearing of the Lord. And yet we 
are told that the coming here predicted, was to be ac- 
complished at the destruction of Jerusalem, while Je- 
sus himself tells us, while the evangelists show, and the 
whole history proves, that it was not more than " eight 
days" after the promise, till the whole was fulfilled. Pe- 
ter himself expounding the transfiguration, and calling 
it "the power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ!" 
Universalism is mad, and its advocates have overlooked 
the plainest testimonies against themselves. Jesus has 
connected his two advents by a force of reason and fact 
that cannot be disputed. Some of his apostles saw both 
advents, and they told the vision of the last to their fel- 
lows, after the resurrection of their Lord. There is no 
event, therefore, between the departure of the immortal 
Jesus, and the immortalizing, in his presence, of all the 
faithful, that can be called the second coming. And here 
we pronounce, that Universalism is foiled. Were there 
no other passage by which fully to demolish it, this 
alone would suffice. And yet it is the passage most used 
to support it ! Strange, that devotion to a foolish and 
whimsical system, should make its advocates believe that 
their very sentence of death is an adjudication to life ! 
that the passage which condemns their scheme, supports 
and proves it ! 



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109 



III. We come at length to Matt. xxiv. This chap- 
ter, by many, has teen almost abandoned to the depre- 
dations of the spiritual Goths and V an.daS "of univer- 
salism. We will see, however, whether it will prove 
the second advent in the reign of Vespasian— or wheth- 
er it upholds the dogma that the second coming is 
past. 

We admit, in the first place, that the 24th of Mat- 
thew, with the parallel places in the other testimonies, 
are portions of Scripture which embrace, prophetically, 
the history of the church from its rise to its consumma- 
tion. We go further: we admit that the destruction of 
J erusalem and the scattering of the Jews, are here most 
glowingly described. We might go even further, and 
say that a general history of the world is here embraced. 
The principal events, of course, are the only ones that 
come into view. Among these, the destruction of J eru- 
salem, the general apostasy, the suffering of the saints, 
and the final judgment, are chief. We remark, howev- 
er, what has been apparent to all intelligent Bible read- 
ers, namely, that our Divine Prophet manifestly doubles 
the entendre of his predictions : or, in other words, 
speaks of the end of two dispensations at once. In the 
early part of the discourse, he more especially alludes to 
the catastrophe of Jerusalem ; but, as he progresses, the 
scene widens, and the actors multiply; so that, as he 
came once, and by his cross abrogated the law of com- 
mandments, suffered for sins to lay the foundation for a 
full atonement, and rose from the dead for the justifica- 
tion of all that believe ; so he will come again at the con- 
clusion of the New Instition, for the salvation of all that 
look for him. Prophesy has not two meanings ; but 
some predictions embrace events of a first and second 
category, and the first may be figurative of the last. 
Thus the destruction of J erusalem becomes a figure of 
the dissolution of the present order of things, as Juda- 



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ism was a figure of Christianity. And thus it may be 

that divine dispensations will end and succeed, adum- 
brate and suppose each other, through the endless extent 
of ages. 

But, if our adversaries will not allow the above prin- 
ciple, it matters not : they will gain nothing by denying 
it, so far as the second coming of Christ is concerned, 
which we now proceed to show did not happen at the 
destruction of Jerusalem. To demonstrate this, we 
wish no other passage than this same 24th of Matthew ; 
from which it will appear, that at that time Christ made 
no appearance, either public or private. Turn, then, to 
the place— begin, and read on. As this single question 
of a coming is involved, you need not stop to make other 
inquiries. We must find the point in the prophecy when 
Jerusalem is encompassed by armies. This point is dis- 
closed at verse 15. Here, then, the desolating abomi- 
nation stands in the holy place ; the faithful in Judea 
flee to the mountains ; those on the house-top descend 
not to carry off their goods, but make their escape in all 
haste ; and the helpless women, oppressed by a peculiar 
inconvenience, are overtaken by the vengeful calamity ! 
Then is great tribulation ! then is wrath upon the Jew- 
ish people, "such as was not since the beginning of the 
world to this time, no, nor ever shall be !" But the days 
of vengeance are shortened, lest a final end be put to 
the whole miserable nation. You will perceive, now, 
while the desolating abomination is in the holy place, 
and wrath is burning and smoking upon the apostate na- 
tion, how careful our prophet is to ward off imposition. 
He foresaw that some would expect the Messiah at that 
time, and, to meet the case, he says : " Then, if any man 
shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there ! believe 
it not. For there shall arise false christs, and false 
prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders ; in- 
somuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the 



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Ill 



very elect. ^ Behold, I have told you before ! Wherefore, 
if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert, 
go not forth : Behold, he is in the secret chamber, believe 
it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and 
shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of 
the Son of Man be." 

Admitting, then, for the sake of the case, that the 
whole of this chapter, down to verse 27, treats primari- 
ly of the fate of the Jews, and the destruction of Jeru- 
salem, we are positively forbidden to believe that Christ 
appeared in any way or in any place in Judea, at that 
time. We know of but two ways in which a person may 
appear : one is, in public ; the other, in private. But 
J esus most solemnly says, that, at the destruction of Je- 
rusalem, he would appear neither publicly nor privately : 
neither in the secret chamber, nor in the open desert. 
Of course, he made no appearance at all ! This settles 
the question forever, and Universalists are driven from 
their day of judgment beginning at the fall of this fa- 
mous city. They must now take new ground ; for even 
they do not like the stigma here fixed by the Lord upon 
" any man " who would affirm an advent of Christ at 
that time. I once held a public disputation with a Uni- 
versalist clergyman, who took his stand as above, that 
Christ appeared at the destruction of J erusalem : but, 
when I came upon him with the above passage, he fled 
at the mention of the doctrine of the false prophets, and 
took his position somewhere in that generation, but 
would not tell where ! Having now approached a point 
at which we must pause and draw an inference, that in- 
ference is this : As they were false teachers who, at the 
time of the triumph of the Roman arms, said the Lord 
came or appeared, they who affirm, at this day. the same 
thing, are equally false and unworthy of credit. Uni- 
versalists cannot help themselves by running, here, into 
the company of "Orthodox Commentators for if all 



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mankind should agree in a lie, that lie, for that reason, 
would not become truth. 

Nor will it help the matter to say there was a sense 
in which Christ was seen at that time. We might admit, 
without danger to the truth, that there is a sense in 
which God is seen in all the affairs of providence : but 
this were to give up the question, as no one is able to 
number the divine appearances that happen in this way. 
In this sense, Christ and God no more appeared at the 
destruction of Jerusalem, than they did at the battle of 
New Orleans, or of the river Thames — no more than 
they appear in the election of our presidents, or at the 
coronation of the British kings and queens. All these 
things happen in the order of Providence : but to say 
that Christ appears in them in the sense of that coming 
described in Matthew xxiv, is the foolishness of folly. 

Here, then, is the place to examine the advent there 
predicted. " Immediately after the tribulation of those 
days," we are informed, " shall the sun be darkened, and 
the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall 
fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be 
shaken: and then" (not at the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem, but after it) " shall appear the sign of the Son of 
Man in heaven" (not on earth) ; " and then shall all the 
tribes of the earth " (not Judea only) " mourn, and they 
shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven 
with power and great glory." The evidences of the ad- 
vent are intuitive and divine. The event will not need 
to be proved, any more than when the face of heaven is 
flushed over with lightning, proof is needed of the light- 
ning. It is its own proof. "As the lightning cometh out 
of the east, and shineth even unto the west" — making 
itself manifest as to need the demonstration of no phi- 
losopher — " so shall the coming of the Son of Man be," 
and the least vestige of room for doubting it will for- 
ever be annihilated. No Christian doubts the first ad- 



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113 



vent of his Lord, because it has been sustained " by many 

infallible proofs and yet the glory of the first is scarce- 
ly bo ue compared, to that of his second advent, and if a 
large majority of Christians doubt the happening of such 
advent in all time past, the reason is, it has never yet 
happened. 

The obscuration of the sun, the darkness of the moon, 
and the falling of the stars, as asserted in the preceding 
passage, are not to be understood of the destruction of 
Judaism or the J ews ; for these phenomena do not hap- 
pen till after the sacking of the city, and the days of 
tribulation are ended. If Universalism be true, the de- 
struction itself was the annihilation of sun, moon and 
stars ! But the falling of the heavenly bodies, in this 
passage, cannot symbolize the destruction of the Jew- 
ish polity, as we have forever settled the fact that it was 
disannulled forty years before, by the cross of our Lord. 
The crashing and falling of the solar system, become 
thus, as we see, infinitely troublesome to the cause of 
Universalian scepticism. They cannot signify anything 
that happened at Jerusalem, during the time of its siege 
and fall: for the testimony is, that the sun. moon and 
stars did not hide themselves till after the end of the 
tribulation : they cannot mean anything that happened 
before the event, if Universalism be true : for this would 
spoil the whole idea that Judaism was not destroyed till 
that time i Well, then — luckless cause ! — where must 
the system of Universalism fly ? We shall see. 

Forced thus, by these imperishable facts, to seek their 
coming of the Lord — or, perhaps, the coming of their 
Lord — after the destruction of Jerusalem, Universalists 
strike out into the darkness of profane history, and are 
perfectly unable to satisfy themselves as to the time and 
place of the advent in question ! They can no longer 
have it at Jerusalem. Vespasian, Titus, and the Ro 
man eagles, strike a panic into these soldiers of mysti 
8 



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cism. They fly to Pela ; but there all is doubt and con- 
jecture. In fact, there appears to be no place in crea- 
tion in which the system can find a resting place, if we 
except Gehenna. 

You will perceive that it is not so much our object, in 
this discourse, to give our own exegesis of the xxivth of 
Matthew, as it is to show that the Universalist version 
of it cannot he true. Whatever may be its meaning, it 
is thus far, as you have seen, positively against a coming 
of the Lord at the destruction of Jerusalem. This point 
is settled, and the quibbling system is sent howling into 
"the wilderness of sin" to find some terra firma that 
may support its uneasy steps. 

But here we are reminded all of a sudden, that " this 
generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfill- 
ed." With what confidence Universalists depend on 
this passage, to prove that our Lord made his second ad- 
vent within forty or fifty years from the time in which 
he spoke, is known to you all But as we have proved, 
from undoubted sources, that the Jewish religion was 
u done away," "abolished," disannulled," by the cruci- 
fixion, and all its lights and morals incorporated with 
the Christian system, which went into full divine opera- 
tion soon after the coronation of Messiah ; and as we 
ha^e proved there was no apppearance of Christ at the 
destruction of Jerusalem, and Universalists have failed 
to establish one since, it must follow that the phrase 
" this generation " cannot have the? meaning asserted of 
it by our Universalist proclaimers. Whatever it may 
mean, it cannot mean that Christ was to descend from 
heaven to the judgment seat within forty or fifty years 
from the time he uttered these predictions. Nor did 
the apostles afterward believe that he would so soon 
appear the second time, as we shall see in the proper 
place. 

What, then, is the meaning of the expression ? and 



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115 



what is that kingdom of God promised as nigh when 
all those signs should appear ? We offer the following 
illustrations : 

1. We have proved already, positively, and beyond all 
cavil, that the reign of God, the Gospel dispensation, the 
church, commenced, was established, ratified, and fully 
confirmed, as early as A. D. 33 : so that the appearing 
again of our Lord to introduce the same thing, were to 
make the second advent do the office of the first. 
Hence, if you ask a Universalist what events accompany 
the second advent that did not appertain to the first, he 
will be unable to tell you. If he have any meaning at 
all, his first and second advents are just the same. Un- 
der his first coining, Christ introduced the Gospel dis- 
pensation, which is, in this philosophy, the day of judg- 
ment; and, under his second, he carries on the same 
thing ! What wisdom we have in these last days ! 

2. The reign of Grace, by the Gospel, commonly call- 
ed the Gospel dispensation, and sometimes " the king- 
dom of God's dear Son," cannot be the kingdom promised 
as nigh when the signs we have recounted shall appear ; 
for the apostles and primitive Christians had already 
been " translated into " this gracious kingdom more than 
thirty years before the fall of J erusalem, and Paul wrote 
to the Colossians as much as ten years before, to whom 
he acknowledges such translation. See i, 13. Along 
with the appearance of the Son of Man, as predicted in 
Matthew xxivth, and its parallels, a kingdom of God was 
to appear, in which the apostles and saints were to find 
redemption — such a redemption as they had never en- 
joyed before. All the signs, then, here described, must 
be understood as preceding and foretokening that king- 
dom, not the Gospel dispensation. This is as clear as a 
sunbeam. But, 

3. The kingdom here promised is not the Gospel 
reign : for the saints were under that at the time the 



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signs should appear: still, as to them, the " kingdom of 
God is at hand " when the signs should be seen, and 
their redemption approaching. Now, the apostles and 
saints certainly were redeemed by the precious blood of 
Christ, before the fall of Jerusalem — had been pardon- 
ed, adopted, sanctified, and saved — for they have told 
us so: and yet Christ tells them, when they shall see 
the signs of his coming, to look up, to rejoice, for their 
redemption draweth nigh ! Their redemption in thi3 
kingdom, therefore, was more than pardon, more than 
adoption into the church on earth, more than the pos- 
session of all the joys and immunities resulting to the 
believer while exposed to persecutions and death. But, 
if more, how much more % If a redemption be promised 
to the redeemed, what is it % The answer is, It is " the 
redemption of their bodies !" It follows, that all the 
signs here depicted as precursating the kingdom of God, 
are those which precede and foretoken the resurrection 
of the dead, as nothing short of a resurrection can be 
more than the apostles and saints enjoyed by faith in 
the Lord. But he promised them more when he should 
appear. Did they realize more at the destruction of Je- 
rusalem, or all their lives afterward? Or did the apos- 
tles live afterward % If John lived afterward, was his ex- 
ile to the isle of Patmos the redemption that drew nigh % 
Did Christians in general enjoy more after the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem — after this great second coming that 
Universalists dream of — than they did before ? No Uni- 
versalist will dare tell me they did. While, then, it is 
as clear as demonstration, that by the kingdom of God 
here named, our Divine Prophet meant the immortal 
reign of God, his unsuffering kingdom after the resur- 
rection, it follows with equal clearness, that the signs ce- 
lestial and terrestiaL here summed up, appeared not to 
any of the people who, standing round, heard this admi- 
rable discourse of our Lord. And, now, 



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4. It follows, too, that the phrase " this generation n is 
not to be understood of the people who lived while Je- 
sus was speaking, but of those who should live when the 
signs should be seen. If we are right in our definition 
of the kingdom of God — and Universalists cannot dis- 
pute it — then we are right as to the meaning of this gen- 
eration. I am perfectly confident in these conclusions, 
I feel that no man can dispute them with me. I consid- 
er that the meaning of the phrase is fairly and finally 
settled. But, that I may spread the subject over a 
wider surface, I will observe, that the truth lies in one 
of four points. Either, 1. That our Lord meant to des- 
ignate, by " this generation" the contemporaries that 
heard him ; or, 2. The generation of the righteous who 
would continue on the earth till he should come again ; 
or, 3. The race of people, viz : the J ews, among whom he 
lived ; or, 4. The people who should live to see the signs 1 
promised. That he could not have meant the first, is 
now beyond dispute from the demonstration above sub- 
mitted. It is not likely that he meant the second. That 
he meant the third, many have ingeniously contended ; 
but an ingenious argument loses force from the very fact 
that it is ingenious. Nevertheless, I am far from say- 
ing that the arguments brought to sustain this position, 
are inconsiderable. But the whole scope of the place, 
its context and collateral facts and truths, as we have 
seen, form a complete demonstration, that when our 
Lord said, "This generation shall not pass till all these 
things be fulfilled," he meant the people who should be 
on the earth when the signs appear. He must have 
meant this, or else, by a the kingdom of God," he meant 
the Gospel dispensation, and that would have been to 
contradict himself. Finally: The whole passage is made 
perfectly natural, and every difficulty vanishes, if we 
translate the word rendered this, by the same, as is the 
case in our Bible, in an infinite number of places. In- 



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deed, in the four testimonies of Matthew, Mark, Luke, 
and John, which I have examined in reference to the 
matter, I find that "the same 11 is an exceedingly common 
translation of outos. Consult for yourselves. u Verily 
I say unto you, the same generation shall not pass away 
till all these things be fulfilled." Thus we have seen 
that the passage in question loads Universalism with 
insuperable difficulties — proves it to be a base and for- 
eign religion — and is likely to drive its advocates into a 
direct denial of the resurrection of the dead. I am told 
that some of them have already plunged themselves into 
that fearful gulf. 

IV. We have approached Acts i, 10, 11. I see not 
why Universalists quote this passage. I could not, in- 
deed, suppose they had any use for it, had I not heard 
them appeal to it in public discussion. The place is 
flatly opposed to their scheme of the second advent at. 
or shortly after, the destruction of J erusalem : for the 
same J esus who was taken up to heaven, is to return in 
the same manner in which he went away. Well, did he 
" so return," under Vespasian, " about eighteen hundred 
years ago ?" But we leave this text without another re- 
mark, sincerely believing that all Universalists who quote 
it, are labouring under some mental hallucination, not 
knowing what they say, or whereof they affirm. Let us, 

V. Consult Jas. v, 7-9 : " Be patient, therefore, breth- 
ren, unto the coming of the Lord. * * The coming of 
the Lord draweth nigh." From this, and all other sim- 
ilar passages, Universalists make their strongest argu- 
ments in favor of a past second advent. We design to 
look this matter full in the face. Now, as we hold that 
the Lord well knew that Jesus would not return to 
earth to judge all men for many hundreds, and perhaps 
some thousands, of years : but, as the Spirit of inspira- 
tion says, by the apostles, " The coming of the Lord 
draweth nigh," &c, by what principles can we justify 



LECTURES ON UNlVERSALISM. 



110 



such expressions, if the Lord did not come to judgment 
within the apostolic generation 1 Such is the full force 
of the argument. 

To all which we reply, that it is as clear that the apos s 
ties themselves have stated the "day of Christ" was not 
at hand (2 Thes. ii. 21), as that they hate said "it draw- 
eth nigh." Paul wrote his second Epistle to the Thes- 
salonians to inform his brethren on this subject — and 
though he does not reveal the precise time of the ad- 
vent, he nevertheless gives them to know that it was 
distant. What then? Does Paul contradict James and 
Peter, and even himself? No ! Peter explains the whole 
matter in his second Epistle. In this letter the apostle 
professedly treats of the coming of the Lord. In the 
third chapter he gives the character of the last days 
(not the last days of the Jewish polity, for that had end- 
ed many years before Peter wrote this Epistle, but) — 
the last days of the Christian dispensation ; and we no- 
tice, from his prophecy, that the Lord had not then 
come in those last times predicted, inasmuch as scoffers 
are predicted as denying that his coming is taught in 
the Scriptures — the very picture of modern Universal- 
ists ! " Where is the promise of his coming?" We re- 
mark that the period here called the "last days" was 
not the period in which Peter lived ; for he points to the 
future — and his very mode of expression, with the whole 
context, proves that these last days were many years in 
the future. 

In connection with the coming of the Lord, and for 
the purpose of illustrating the divine procedure touch- 
ing it, the apostle then proceeds to lay down a principle 
which fully illumines the face of the whole subject. As 
Paul and J ames had said, c< yet a little while, and he 
that shall come will come, and will not tarry," and "the 
coming of the Lord draweth nigh" — as he that would 
come had not come in the latest years of the apostolic 



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age — and as Peter had predicted that his coming would 
be deferred till after "the last days" of ihe Christian 
economy, and would even be denied by religious infi- 
dels — certain men arose, even in apostolic times, who 
charged the Lord with carelessness, with " slackness 
concerning his promise " of coming again ! Peter then 
pleads for the Lord, that " he is not slack concerning his 
promise, as some men count slackness:" and " be not ig- 
norant," said he, " of this one thing, that one day is 
with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years 
as one day." This is the principle. The apostle speaks 
for it the profoundest attention. Of whatever other 
things, respecting the coming of the Lord, men may be un- 
solicitous, they are apostolically commanded not to be ig- 
norant of this ONE thing. While, upon the one hand, 
the divine advent is deferred for the purpose of securing 
salvation to many by " the long-suffering of the Lord," 
the Lord claims, on the other hand, the prerogative of 
calling a day a thousand years, or a thousand years a 
day. Now, although the Holy Spirit said, "The com- 
ing of the Lord draweth nigh," &c, God would not be 
slack concerning this promise, if he did not fulfill it for 
two or three days, or even for a week ! If he deferred 
his promise a thousand years, that is but a day with 
him — and still he can say, at the beginning of the day, 
" Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, 
and will not tarry." Such is the meaning of Peter, and 
such is the never-to-be-forgotten rule that he lays down 
to justify the divine procedure in view of the fact that 
the Lord would not come till after the last days of the 
Christian economy. Let me ask, Does not Peter give 
us this rule, and command us most solemnly to be " not 
ignorant" of it? Does he not clearly confine the rule to 
the subject of the coming of the Lord? Respecting the 
Lord's advent, then, we are to use it, to enforce it, to be 
instructed by it, and never forget it. If any one thing 



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121 



in the whole of this third chapter of Second Peter, be 
more fully riveted and urged upon the reader, than an- 
other, it is the all-important and illuminating truth, that 
" one day is loith the Lord as a thousand years, and a thou- 
sand years as one day." 

The Lord's "little while" may seem a long time to 
us ; and in precisely this light did James and Paul view 
it. Hence, in the very passages where they speak of the 
speedy coming of the Lord, they enjoin patience on their 
brethren. " Be patient" says James, "for the coming of 
the Lord draweth nigh." " Ye have need of patience" 
says Paul, " that, after ye have done the will of God, ye 
might receive the promise." 

The system of Universalism teaches, that if the Lord 
Jesus did not appear the second time, did not come to 
the judgment, at, or shortly after the destruction of Je- 
rusalem, all those promises that mention the judgment 
nigh, have failed — in other words, that the Lord has 
been slack concerning them : but it is remarkable how 
fully and completely the above principle, applied too 
to the promised advent of our Lord, rebukes, shames, 
and forever condemns that unblushing scheme. Peter 
appears as the advocate of his Lord, and justifies what 
appeared to some a slackness on his part in reference to 
the promise, on the principle that that seeming delay, 
called here "the long-suffering of the Lord " was design- 
ed "for salvation." The holy man indorses for his 
brother Paul, who, " in all his Epistles," had spoken of 
the same things — which things (hard, indeed, to be un- 
derstood even by the pure in heart, but wrested by the 
unlearned and unstable, may apply to any purpose) may 
be understood and appreciated by such as seek the truth 
more than they seek fame or fortune. 

We have, then, a divine principle laid down, by which 
to illustrate all the divine promises made in relation to 
the second advent of our absent Lord. We must not 



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forget or be ignorant of it. On this principle We can 
meet the whole troop of scoffers, Who say the day of 
judgment has come, and the second or judgment-bring- 
ing advent is past; They will laugh and sneer : but 
heed them not, so long as Peter exhorts and urges you 
never to give up the rule. You have his authority in 
the premises and in the conclusions. 

VI. The sixth text relied on by Universalists, is Heb. 
x, 36, 37 ; but as we have now, in the above section, fully 
met their arguments, and developed a principle applica* 
ble to all such passages, it would be a work of superero- 
gation to detain you on this. We come 

VII. To 1 Pet. iv, 17, and a very few remarks will 
suffice : " For the time is come that judgment must be- 
gin at the house of God," &c. Upon this passage Uni- 
versalists make several assumptions. One is, that the 
house of God, here mentioned, was the Jewish Temple 
In Jerusalem ; whereas, it is plain from the whole con- 
text, as well as from an endless variety of other passages, 
that it means the Christian church. That this is its 
true meaning here is demonstrated by the fact, that the 
terms "us 35 and "them that obey the Gospel," are used 
to represent the same thing with "the house of God." 
Judgment must begin with the house of God— and if it 
begin at us, if it commence with them that obey the Gos s 
pel, what will the end be of them that obey it not! 
Such is the apostle's argument. Another assumption is, 
that the judgment, here indicated, was to commence at 
the Temple in Jerusalem when the Roman armies should 
besiege it; whereas, that judgment had already begun 
in "Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia^ Asia (Minor), and 
Bithynia !" Peter did not write to the Hebrews, in this 
Epistle, nor concerning them. Besides, the judgment 
which had begun among the Christians in those districts^ 
was not the same that would fall upon the ungodly. 
The one had begun ; the other was future — "what shall 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS]*!. 



123 



be the end of them that obey not the Gospel?" Finally, 
The judgment at Jerusalem had not then commenced, 
Universalists themselves being judges. And so again 
their ill-fated and most miserable system of quibbles and 
contradictions, is exposed and detected ; and our argu- 
ments are brought to a close. 

By way of conclusion, a reflection or two arises from 
the premises. 

You will naturally ask, Why is it that Universalists 
so loudly contend for the foregoing dogmas ? The answer, 
doubtless, is, not that they love the Divine Being more 
than others, or are more disposed to do his will, or are 
more happy than their neighbors; but that they feel 
within themselves a repugnance to the divine govern- 
ment as it must be understood from the plain disclosures 
of Scripture. If, then, it can be made to appear that the 
day of judgment- — that the judgment-coming of Christ 
is past ; that the day of judgment is now going on ; and 
that, now, every man is receiving according to his works ; 
future punishment is, of course, to be treated as a fable, 
and the general judgment, after the resurrection, as a 
heathen superstition. And, when a judgment after 
death is thus blotted out, all those Scriptures which 
plainly assert it, must be twisted, turned, tortured, per- 
verted, and even ridiculed, by these noisy and most un- 
philosophical philosophers. Hence, what Universalists 
term preaching the Gospel^ is in fact, little other than 
attempts at showing, that such passages as M after this 
(death) the judgment" — "be thou faithful unto death, 
and I will give thee a crown of life," &c, &c. — mean, in re- 
ality, no such thing as a plain reader would suppose, but 
the very reverse ! "After death," with them, means be- 
fore death ; and so of the rest. In short, their whole la- 
bor consists in " reconciling " the Scriptures to their 
views, a plain confession that, as the texts stand, they ar# 
hostile to them. 



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LECTURES ON UNIVEIISAL1SM. 



Touching the solemn and every way most important 
subjects of the second advent of Jesus and his judg- 
ment of the world, I have sought the truth with candid 
devotion and a diligence that tired not in the midst of 
the labor ; and I most unfeignedly aver that I have fully 
satisfied myself that the Universalian views of these sub- 
jects are the most jejune, incongruous, inconsistent, fool- 
ish and impious of any that have come under my obser- 
vation. If any dependence whatever can be reposed in 
the Bible, in reason, in the nature of the case and of 
man, to say nothing of the nature of the Divine Being 
himself, these views must henceforth be regarded by all 
who venerate the truth, or care a straw for it, as preg- 
nant with infinite mischief to man and dishonor to God. 

Of what worth, however, is truth, if Universalism be 
true % If the worst sinner, the veriest Atheist, the most 
bloody tyrant, and the filthiest fiends that have lived 
and died in sin, merely because they are of the family of 
man and Christ died for sinners, will receive eternal life 
in heaven, as certainly as the prophets, apostles, and all 
the pure of whom the world is not worthy ? where is the 
necessity of either believing or obeying the truth? If 
you receive the truth, all is well with you : if you receive 
it not, all loill be well ! Such is Universalism. It is won- 
derful why the ministers of this dream do not wake up 
sufficiently to see that their labors are doing mankind 
no real good. They are laboring to bring about a con- 
summation which would of itself as certainly come with- 
out their interference ! 

But in their benevolence, they tell us that their gen- 
erous aim is to make mankind happy before death ! Phil- 
anthropists, truly ! If the argument be good, we might 
expect to see in Universalist societies the happiest class- 
es of men. We might be sure of seeing the purest mor- 
als, the greatest solemnity, the most punctillious regard 
to all Christian duties and ordinances, and the most ser- 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



125 



aphic devotion and prayer. But are they more happy, 
more holy, more devoted, more spiritually minded? Do 
the truths of the Bible make them more solemn and obe- 
dient than their neighbors ? Alas for them, when the 
comparison is made ! 

Whatever happiness is found in the truth, is found to 
result from it when believed and obeyed as a whole. If 
so, Universalism is incapable of producing happiness in 
this life. However, I will not contend that very great 
happiness is to be found on earth, aside from the assu- 
rance we receive from promises made to the godly ; for 
"they that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suifer 
persecution." Universalism may obliterate hell, annihi- 
late a future judgment, and reason the devil out of the 
universe ; but as long as the Bible exists, and common 
sense holds a place among men, those whose object is 
the truth, cannot accredit a system which, as we have 
said and proved, is a ragged mendicant at every gate of 
logic. 

We have by no means exhausted the subject. I have 
many reasons to assign why the Lord Jesus did not ap- 
pear the second time— did not come to the judgment at 
the destruction of Jerusalem, and has not appeared for 
that purpose since — but I shall not state them now. 
They will appear in the next Lecture. Meanwhile, let 
us reflect upon the glorious day of the coming of the 
King of kings and Lord of lords. And, 

"0 that each, in the day 
Of his coming, may say: 

'I have fought my way through — 
I have finished the work thou didst give me to do!' 
O that each, from his Lord, 
May receive the glad word : 

'Well and faithfully done ! 
Enter into my joy 
And sit down on my throne !' " 



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LECTURES ON TJNIVERSALISM. 



LECTUKE VI. 

DIFFICULTIES OF UNIVERSALISM. 

At the conclusion of our fifth Lecture we promised 
gome additional arguments against that feature of Uni- 
versalism which confines the second adyent of Christ to 
the past : but, upon mature reflection, I have found that 
this would be a work of supererogation. Our fourth and 
fifth Lectures will remain unanswered by Universalists, 
because unanswerable : and until they shall be attacked, 
additional argumentation is uncalled for. By the selec- 
tion of a few cardinal points, and by a clear and concise 
defense of them, our aim has been to advance immovable 
and unanswerable things, and in this way to make a clean 
sweep of Universalism : for if the few positions we have 
selected, or any one of them, be sustained, the whole of 
Universalism falls. It is not therefore necessary to follow 
its advocates into all their windings and sinuosities. If 
the great subjects of pardon, the typical import of the 
priesthood of Aaron, the second advent of Christ, togeth- 
er with such cognate matter as has been presented in the 
preceding prelections, have been found essentially and 
totally hostile to, and irreconcilable with, Universalism, 
discussions of the more faint and less prominent features 
of the system, would resemble the mode of felling a tree 
by attacking its topmost branches. We have, in the pre- 
ceding pages, laid our axe to the root of the tree, and 
have laid its trunk upon the ground ; so that all we have 
now to do, is to trim oft 7 the principal branches and leave 
them for fuel. 

For the purpose of accomplishing this, it becomes our 
duty to present some of the chief difficulties of Univer- 
salism, as viewed in relation to certain parts of the Bible. 
I once conceived the intention of progressing regularly 
through the New Scriptures, and selecting such passages 
as are inimical to the system, and of presenting them, 



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127 



with such reflections as would rise upon each subject, in 
distinct sections : but here, again, mature reflection ad- 
monished me, that such an effort, however clear and con- 
vincing it might be, would perhaps be less acceptible 
than a few select passages and notes. In this latter way, 
the volume would be portable, and the arguments short 
and comprehensive. I am determined, therefore, upon 
the latter course. The following Scriptures, presented 
in distinct sections, offer insuperable difficulties to the 
claims of Universalism. 

You will permit me to start out by affirming, that vir- 
tue can do us no good, and vice no harm, in reference 
to the future world, if Universalism be true. This must 
be borne in mind in all the following investigations. 

§ I. "And fear not them who kill the body, but are 
not able to kill to soul ; but rather fear him who is able 
to destroy both soul and body in hell." "Be not ^ifraid 
of them that kill the body, and after that, have no more 
that they can do : but I will forewarn you whom ye shall 
fear : fear him who, after he hath killed, hath power to 
cast into hell;" — Matt, x, 28 ; Luke xii, 5. 

The following points seem clearly to be established by 
the above passage : 

1. That the soul of man cannot be killed by killing 
his body. If we admit (and we do cheerfully) that the 
word here rendered soul, not unfrequently means no 
more than life ; yet it means more in this passage, or the 
passage itself is incomprehensible. 

2. If the soul or life, here mentioned as existing after 
the death of the body, mean the spiritual and divine life 
of saints which is said to be " hid with Christ in God," 
such a provision is made for the saints only, and has no 
application to such as may be liable to be cast into hell 
after the death of the body. 

But that J esus does not here mean the hidden life of 
the saints, is evident ; for he mentions this very soul or 



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LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



life as liable to destruction in hell, which cannot be 
affirmed of that life which is hidden with Christ in 
God. In every man, therefore, there is a species of life 
or existence, which cannot die or be killed with the 
body. 

3. The body, that is, the flesh and blood, brains and 
bones, may be killed— they may be killed by onr fellow 
creatures; and we fear murderers because they have 
power to do this fearful thing. But there is One who 
claims a superior fear, because, in his wrath, he not only 
can kill, but can cast both soul and body into hell after- 
ward. If, therefore, there be no punishment after death, 
our fear of murderers would be the only fear that could 
influence us. But we must disregard the petty and pu- 
ny arm of man, and fear God who is able to inflict a more 
severe punishment than death. Death has ever been con- 
sidered the greatest punishment that men can inflict up- 
on their fellows : but there is a greater punishment than 
death. The recreant Hebrew, who disregarded Moses's 
Law, " died," it is said, " without mercy, under two or 
three witnesses," Heb. x, 28 : and the apostate Christian 
is taught to expect a much sorer punishment than a mer- 
ciless death ! There is, then, a punishment after death, 
which is more intense than death without mercy. 

4. The hell, mentioned in the above text, is, in the 
judgment of the Messiah, after death : " Fear him who, 
after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell." Men 
may, therefore, be cast into hell after they die, if the pas- 
sage mean what it affirms. But, 

5. As it is manifestly God who is to be feared, rather 
than those who can kill the body ; and, as they have no 
power to cast into hell, it follows that the hell here in- 
tended is not only after death, but is not the graveyard 
or cemetery : for those who kill the body have power to 
bury the dead. 

6. Neither is the hell here indicated, the valley of 



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129 



Hinnom : for those who killed the body, in that vicinity, 
had power to cast the dead into that place as easily as 
to conceal them elsewhere. Nor, 

7. Was it the Roman power that was to be feared, for 
that power never did more than to kill the bodies of 
such as opposed it — it was as incapable of killing the 
soul as was Cain, the first murderer. 

The whole passage, for the above reasons, is wholly op- 
posed to Universalism : for it teaches that there is a hell 
for soul and body after death, and that those sinners 
who leave the world without the fear of Grod will fall in- 
to it, and be destroyed. If it be true, " that virtue can 
do us no good, and vice no harm, in reference to the fu- 
ture world," how is the above seven-sided difficulty to 
be reconciled with such a sentiment ? Will some Univer- 
salist tell us ? We anticipate no answer. 

§ II. " Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein 
most of his mighty works were done, because they repent- 
ed not : Wo unto thee, Chorazin ! Wo unto thee, Beth- 
saida ! for if the mighty works which were done in you, 
had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have re- 
pented long ago in sackcloth and ashes ! But I say unto 
you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the 
day of judgment, than for you ! And thou, Capernaum, 
who art exalted to heaven, shalt be brought down to 
hell : for if the mighty works which have been done in 
thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained 
unto this day. But I say unto you, it shall be more tol- 
erable for the land of Sodom, in the day of judgment, 
than for thee !"— Matt, xi, 20-24. 

This passage presents a difficulty of six or seven sides 
to, and will be found incompatible with, Universalism. 
Let us inspect it closely : 

1. Jesus upbraided Chorazin. Bethsaida, and Caper- 
naum, "because they repented not" after they had seen 
his mighty works. They could, then, have repented — 



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this was in their power : but they "became culpable by 
an abuse of power and privilege. But Universalism, 
a system of fatality, assumes that there was no other 
way for the thing to be than that which happened — that 
God never willed that Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Caper- 
naum, should repent at that time ! " Whatever is," in 
the most unlimited sense, " is right," according to this 
system. 

2. The day of judgment, here mentioned by our 
Lord, was future, when he uttered this discourse. This 
day, then, was either the Gospel dispensation, about to 
be ushered in, or some day after its termination. But, 

3. The day of judgment, here predicted, as much per- 
tains, in the future, to Tyre and Sidon, and Sodom, as to 
Bethsaida, Chorazin, and Capernaum ! "It shall be more 
tolerable for Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom, than it shall be 
for you." Universalism makes Jesus say, Capernaum, 
Bethsaida, and Chorazin, when they shall be destroy- 
ed, will undergo greater punishment than Tyre, Sidon, 
and Sodom lid, hundreds of years ago ! But the futu- 
rity of the judgment is as much predicted of Tyre, Si- 
don, and Sodom, as of Chorazin y Bethsaida, and Caper- 
naum. To suit Universalism, our Lord should have 
said, "It has been more tolerable for Tyre, Sidon, and 
Sodom, than it will be for you." But such a view would 
rob the warning of all its meaning, and present the wis- 
dom of God as speaking foolishly. The day of judg- 
ment, then, was future from the time of this discourse, 
to the Tyrians, Sodomites, and Sidonians, though they 
had been dead for ages. 

4. The hell, threatened in this passage, is neither 
the grave nor the valley of Hinnom : for, as to the grave, 
it is the common lot of all, good and bad ; as to the valley 
of Hinnom, it is difficult to conceive how the people of 
Capernaum, at the border of the tribes of Zebulon and 
Naphthali, and on the north-western side of the sea of 



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131 



Galilee, could all be transported some hundred and fifty 
miles— nearly the whole length of the Jordan— to be 
buried in the vale of Hinnom ! AncTif they could, how 
much worse would it be to be buried in Hinnoni, than at 
Capernaum? as, in either case, if Universalism be true, 
the freed spirits of the Capernaumites would fly immedi- 
ately to heaven. Nor, 

5. Could the day of judgment, here predicted, be the 
time when Jerusalem was spoiled by the Roman armies, 
under Titus : because the Tyrians, Sidonians, and Sod- 
omites were not upon the ground to receive their more 
tolerable punishment than that which overtook the Jews. 
Nay, if they had been there, and mixed with apostate 
Israel, they would have received more than their share 
of the catastrophe, and would, besides, have -falsified the' 
prediction, which had assigned them a milder punish- 
ment ! Besides, it is the judgment of Bethsaida, Chora- 
zin, and Capernaum, not Jerusalem, that is here predict- 
ed. But, 

6. The day of judgment, here foretold, is not the Gos- 
pel dispensation, for two reasons. One is, this dispen- 
sation never inflicted corporal and capital punishments, 
tolerable or intolerable, on any one, but was designed, 
in its legitimate aims, to save, not destroy, men ; to con- 
vert, sanctify, and elevate, not to degrade or render mis- 
erable. The highest inflictions it knows, are disfellow- 
ship and exclusion from its communion. But these have 
no similitude to the judgments pronounced on Chorazin, 
Bethsaida, and Capernaum ; much less can they be term- 
ed a heavier punishment than that of Tyre, Sidon, and 
Sodom. The other reason is, the apostles, who, it is 
presumed, knew whether they lived in the day of judg- 
ment or not, have uniformly spoken of that day as fu- 
ture. They not only lived in the Gospel dispensation, 
but were instrumental in bringing it in. Still they talk- 
ed and wrote of the day as future. There appears no 



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way, therefore, by which, the above passages can be recon- 
ciled to TJniversalisixi. 

AUG lis repeat what Universalists affirm, Virtue 
can do us no good — -religion, the gift of the Holy Spirit, 
conversion and holiness of heart and life, patient contin- 
uance in well-doing, walking after the Spirit, devotion, 
love, praise, and all the piety and goodness that were 
ever practiced among men, or commanded of God — can 
do us no good — can make us no safer, as to heaven, than 
we are by virtue of our simple being — and vice, in all 
its horrid forms— apostacies, lies, perjuries, men-steal- 
ing, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, heresies, 
wrath, strife, seditions, bigamies, sodomies, simonies, and 
all the ten thousand named and nameless forms, stripes, 
shades, degrees, qualities and quantities of sin — can do 
us no harm — connot, in the least possible degree, endan- 
ger our eternal happiness ! I say, put these together, 
and then ask, if our Lord intended to teach Universal- 
ism by the passages we have analyzed, did he not use 
the very worst words for such a purpose? If the 
greatest sinner be as sure of heaven as the greatest 
saint, the Lord and his apostles have forfeited all 
claim, either to wisdom or sincerity. Here Universal- 
ism hangs dangling between the horns of a woeful di- 
lemma. 

§ III. "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be for- 
given unto men : but the blasphemy against the Holy 
Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever 
speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be for- 
given him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy 
Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, 
nor in the world to come. He that shall blaspheme 
against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in 
danger of eternal damnation " (Matt, xii, 31; Mark iii, 
29; Luke xii, 10). 

From an analysis of the above passage, it will appear 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



133 



that it is forever hostile to, and cannot be reconciled 
with, the system of Universalism. 

1. It is stated that all kinds of sin sliaii or may be for- 
given, except one kind. But the words " shall be for- 
given," express simply the fact, that all sins but one, 
whatever may be their manner and nature, are pardona- 
ble by means of Jesus Christ, but tell us nothing of the 
mode or law of pardon. The words, then, are not a pre- 
diction of a time when all sins will be forgiven, but im- 
ply the potentiality or possibility, not actuality of par- 
don. However, did we admit — which we do not — that 
the whole place is a prediction of an era when all sins 
will be remitted, there would still remain one that 
"hath never forgiveness," which would explode Univer- 
salism. 

2. But, if it still be urged, that u shall be forgiven " 
is a prophesy which indicates a time when all sin will 
be pardoned, when all men will come to God and find 
remission, however much they may blaspheme and dis- 
honor him while they live ; the -phrase " he that shall 
blaspheme against the Holy Ghost" (Mark iii, 29) must 
be the prediction of a time when the blasphemies shall 
be uttered : so that, if " shall be " on the one hand, make 
pardon certain and unavoidable, shall be, on the other, 
will be found to imply that there are certain men who 
cannot, by any possibility, avoid sinning against the 
Holy Ghost ! If one be merely prophetic, so is the oth- 
er : if the one express simply the possibility of the re- 
mission of all kinds of sin save one, the other expresses 
the impossibility of the remission of that one. Such is 
the true state of the case. 

3. If it be argued, that the words " neither in this 
world, nor in the world to come," mean, neither under 
the Law of Moses, nor in the Gospel dispensation ; and 
if it be inferred that remission would take place in the 
world future to Christ, when he uttered this discourse, 



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LECTURES ON UNIVEItSALISM. 



from the fact stated, that the blasphemer should be for- 
given neither in this world nor that (seeming to imply 
forgiveness in the future age), we may admit the inter- 
pretation without detriment to the truth. For, if the 
future world, or the age that was to come, meant at that 
time the Gospel kingdom, it will follow that the blas- 
phemer in question can find no forgiveness through 
Christ under the Gospel. If he be forgiven at all, it 
must be done in some age that is neither Jewish nor 
Christian, and by some means aside from the sacrifices 
of the Law and the blood of Christ. In some dispensa- 
tion, then, having remedial and moral powers far sur- 
passing those of the Gospel, and a price of redemption 
far more precious than the blood of Christ, the Univer- 
salist hopes salvation for the vagrant blasphemer, who is 
jostled over from one age to another till he finds the 
tardy mercy in some government which is neither Jew- 
ish nor Christian. 

4. But if it be admitted that "the world to come " is 
a form of speech equivalent to the next after the Chris- 
tian dispensation (as is generally believed), the fact is 
then clear that the blasphemer shall find no pardon in 
that age. And should we admit (which we do not) that 
other men, after death, maj^ find remission then and 
there, still there will be none for the blasphemer against 
the Holy Ghost. You will perceive hence, that we have 
fairly cooped up our Universalist chanticleers, gaffed as 
they may be, and noisy as they are, between the prongs 
of an inflexible dilemma. If the "world to come" 
mean the Christian age, the Universalist finds no par- 
don for the blasphemer in it, and is bound to invent a 
system of pardon in a subsequent world, and through 
means not revealed in the Gospel: if the "world to 
come" mean the world now future to us, the case is still 
worse, for the blasphemer " hath never forgiveness," even 
there ! Our friends must imagine some third interpreta- 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



135 



tion of the passage, or cease their opposition to " ortho- 
doxy." 

5. As the passage under review says nothing as to 
the law of forgiveness and the mode of pardon, but 
teaches simply that all kinds of sin will be forgiven un- 
der the administration of the Messiah, except the fear- 
ful one against the Holy Spirit ; the rules by which re- 
mission is to be bestowed, become subjects of future dis- 
closure, and are found to obtain under the apostolic em- 
bassy — " Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord, 
shall be saved." The apostles are now the exponents of 
Christ, not Christ of the apostles. And hence this un- 
pardonable sin is explained by John and Paul, and is 
said to have no forgiveness. John will not allow his 
brethren to pray for the pardon of any who had commit- 
ted it (1 John v, 16) ; and Paul teaches that those who 
are guilty of it cannot be renewed unto repentance ! 
There is no cure for them in heaven or earth. They are 
in danger of, and bound over to, "eternal damnation;" 
Heb. vi, 6. Show me such men, and I will show you 
those who once "partook of the Holy Grhost," but have 
"fallen away," and have no desire not to have commit- 
ted this sin. 

6. If we allow that our Lord had any meaning at all 
in this discourse, we must allow there is such a thing 
as "eternal damnation." But it is equally clear that 
this damnation was not an infliction of the Jewish age 
or law ; for the blasphemer — as Universalists confess — 
not being able to secure pardon either under the Law 
or Gospel, was threatened with a punishment beyond the 
Law of Moses, of course ; so that his damnation could 
not take place in the age that then was. And if, after 
the commencement of the Christian dispensation, it be 
argued that this eternal damnation fell upon the Jews 
at the demolition of their Temple and city, the expres- 
sion is too strong, and is opposed to Christ's own words 



136 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



which spoke of the tribulations of those days as being 
shortened, not lengthened! Matt, xxiv, 22. Now, if, by 
" eternal damnation " in one passage, Christ meant the 
calamities of the apostate J ews, when their city was de- 
stroyed, and meant the same thing when he said, in 
Matthew xxiv, " those days shall be shortened" he would 
mean, upon the whole premises, that the blasphemer, 
failing to obtain pardon under the Law or Gospel, was 
in danger of a short eternal damnation ! which would 
be nonsense. Therefore, the eternal damnation, here 
intended, was not the punishment of the Jews, when 
their city was destroyed. It must mean something else. 
Nor, 

7. Can it mean the protracted punishments inflicted 
on the Jews from that time to this, in their dispersion 
among all nations : for those blasphemers who commit- 
ted this in Christ's day, are not suffering this captivity. 
They remain, however, unforgiven, as we have not yet 
gone past the limits of the Christian age. Now, as their 
damnation was neither the tribulations at Jerusalem, 
which were " short," nor the protracted captivity of the 
J ews, from that time to this ; it was either their mental 
anguish while they lived, or damnation after death and 
forever. It could not have been their mental anguish, 
for two reasons : First, persons who are so hardened as 
to be guilty of this sin, have ceased to be influenced by 
conscience, or are "past feeling," in a moral point of 
view. Secondly, if their consciences could even be sup- 
posed quick and tender, the word eternal is infinitely 
too strong to express a mere fraction of a man's history. 
Besides, it is a matter long since established beyond 
doubt or cavil, that the more impious men become, the 
more insensible they are to the admonitions and lashe3 
of conscience. The greater the sinner the greater the 
sufferer, in this life, is not true : and it will follow, in- 
evitably, that the blasphemers against the Holy Ghost 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



137 



are greatly less tormented by conscience than the care- 
less professor, who. hj persuasion, said a bad word, or 
took too much brandy. If these deductions be true,, it 
will follow, also, that the generally good man who is over- 
taken by an occasional fault, receives a greater damna- 
tion than he who sins against the Holy Ghost, provided 
the punishment be confined to this life. Therefore, 

8. It follows that the eternal punishment to be inflict- 
ed upon him who sins * unto death," will overtake him 
after death and after the resurrection : u He hath never 
forgiveness !" His gloomy destiny is the worm that nev- 
er dies, and the fire that shall never be quenched ! And 
here may we repeat again — If it be true, as Universal- 
ists affirm, that the greatest sinner is just as. sure of 
heaven as the best man on earth, and if Christ intended 
to be so understood, have not his words been ill selected 
and badly applied? If, by saying there is a sin which 
shall never be forgiven, in the present or the future, he 
meant to say that there is no such sin, how can we ven- 
ture to admire him as a teacher sent from God ? And 
if, by eternal damnation, he meant either the destruction 
of Jerusalem, or a few years of supposed mental anguish, 
how shall we be able, by words , to understand or appre- 
ciate anything else he has said ? 

§ IY. " V erily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do 
nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do : 
for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son 
likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth 
him all things that he himself doeth : and he will show 
him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For, 
as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, 
even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the 
Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judg- 
ment unto the Son, that all men should honor the Son, 
even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not 
the Son, honoreth not the Father who hath sent him. 



138 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM, 



Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hearcth my word 
and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, 
and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed 
from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall 
hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear 
shall live. For, as the Father hath life in himself, so 
hath he given to the Son to have life in himself ; and 
hath given him authority to execute judgment also, be- 
cause he is the Son of Man. Marvel not at this: for 
the hour is coming in which all that are in their graves 
shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that 
have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they 
that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation " 
(John v, 19-29). 

I have quoted thus largely from this discourse of our 
Lord, that you may see at once the contextual force of 
the special passage to which your attention will be soli- 
cited. Upon the whole, take the following points as 
conspicuous : 

1. The "greater works than these," which the Mes- 
siah promised as about to be exhibited, were the subse- 
quent miracles to be performed in raising the dead, or 
such dead persons as he might find in his travels : and 
the lesser work was that, or works similar to it, which 
gave rise to this discourse, namely, the healing of the 
man who had been thirty-eight years afflicted — which 
healing was done on the Sabbath, near the pool of Beth- 
esda. Jesus here promises not only to heal cases of 
immedicable disease, but to raise up even the dead, and 
that his hearers shall see it and marvel. " The Son 
quickeneth whom he will # * * that ye may mar- 
vel. 55 

2. Having granted to the Son to have life in himself 
so as to raise any of the dead at his option, the Father 
constituted him likewise the sole Judge of mankind, as 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSAL ISM. 



139 



he was the Son of man as well as of God. And because 
all judgment is thus committed to him, and holding, as 
he does, unlimited authority oyer the human race, these 
form the reason, and are assigned, why all men should 
honor him as they should honor the Father. He held, 
then, undisputed power to raise the dead, both in the 
time that then was, and in that which was coming. But 
you will mark, 

3. The judgment here indicated and asserted, follows 
upon the resurrection of the dead. The Father, dis- 
claiming ail judgment, commits it to the Son, because 
the Son raises the dead, and is the Son of Man. The 
Father's "judging no one," is equal, in this discourse, 
to Christ's " quickening whom he will." The raising of 
the dead, therefore, as here taught, is a part of the judg- 
ment, or is necessarily connected with it. The dead 
must be raised, that they may be judged. It follows, 
from all this, and we state it confidently as a truth eyer 
destructiye of Uniyersalism, that the resurrection is here 
asserted as a part of the work of Christ, as Judge of 
mankind: of course, the final judgment cannot take 
place till the resurrection, as the resurrection is itself 
the beginning of that judgment. 

4. As it is in an infinite variety of other Scriptures, 
so it is in this ; a cardinal truth is stated, by which some 
of the prominent features of Christianity are apparent. 
If any man will regard the word of Jesus, belieying on 
the Father who sent him, such faithful man will possess 
eternal life in the present time : that is, faith will be to 
him " the substance " or confidence " of things hoped 
for, and the eyidence of things not seen." He thus 
passes from death unto life : for, while he knows that he 
must die, faith assures him that death will be no detri- 
ment to an eternal and happy existence Haying been 
thus justified by faith, and continuing faithful, he enjoys 
the promise that he shall never again come into condem- 



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LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS!!. 



nation. But this view of the matter loads Universalism 
with a ponderous difficulty : for if there be no connec- 
tion between hearing and believing the word of Christ, 
and the eternal life here promised to fidelity, why does 
he speak of them as connected, and promise the latter 
to the former ? If he meant to say that all men, wheth- 
er faithful or unfaithful, on earth, shall receive eternal 
life in heaven ; he has labored in vain, making a distinc- 
tion in the perceptions of his hearers without perceiving 
a difference himself. In other words, he has deceived 
us, and must deceive all honest men. But, sooner than 
believe this, I will believe that Universalism is a cheat, 
and a system of studied slander against the Lord and 
his apostles. 

5. To give proof of his ultimate powers in raising the 
dead and executing judgment, Jesus tells a startling 
truth to his unbelieving contemporaries : " The hour is 
coming," said he, "and now is come, when the dead 
shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that 
hear shall live !" We conclude that the expression, 
" the hour is come" is as firm a truth as any other part 
of the discourse : and the question is, have we any facts 
in the history of Jesus to sustain him in this very stir- 
ring assertion ? Let us examine. When he had come 
into the house of Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, the 
ruler's little daughter was found to be dead. Jesus 
u took her by the hand and said unto her, Talitha cumi, 
damsel, arise ! and immediately the damsel arose and 
walked" (Mark v, 41). The dead, in this case, heard 
the voice of the Son of God, and lived. A mere allu- 
sion to the memorable case of Lazarus will awaken in 
your minds recollections of the whole scene. Jesus 
stood before the monument, and, having spent a few mo- 
ments in prayers, groans and tears, u he cried with a 
loud voice -Lazarus, come forth !' " immediately Lazarus 
obeyed the almighty call — he heard and lived ! Another 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



141 



instance is present to my thoughts. You will under- 
stand me to allude to the young man of Nain. The 
friends of the deceased were carrying him to the grave. 
He was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. 
Jesus had compassion on her, and said, "'Weep not!* 
And he came and touched the bier ; and they that bore 
him stood still. And he said, 1 Young man, I say unto 
thee, arise P and he that was dead sat up, and began to 
speak. And Jesus delivered him unto his mother." 
These three facts form a most beautiful character of the 
hour that then was — just as many of the dead as heard 
the voice of Jesus, lived — to not one did he speak in 
vain. These were the " greater works " than the curing 
of the afflicted man at Bethesda, and were afforded that 
the people " might marvel." But, 

6. As marvelous as these works were, in themselves, 
and fitted to excite a stupendous admiration among the 
populace ; the series of works projected by the Messiah 
involved wonders of a still higher order, and which 
would throw into shade, all the glittering miracles he 
had done before. " Marvel not at this," said he — think 
it not strange, that during the time I am with you, sun- 
dry dead persons shall hear my voice and live — " for the 
hour is coming " — but is not now — "when all that are 
in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come 
forth, they that have done good, unto the resurrection 
of life ; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrec- 
tion of damnation." 

7. Such is the view which a candid and unpreju- 
diced mind would take of the meaning of this discourse*; 
but attempts have been made, and are making, to rec- 
oncile the whole place to the doctrine of ultra Univer- 
salism. It is assumed that the " dead," in the hour 
that then was, were those who were morally so, and that 
their resurrection was not literal but moral or ana- 
gogical. If all this can be made to appear, Universal- 



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LECTURES ON UNIVERSAL1SM. 



ism will look up with some confidence. We must sum 
them up : 

]?i rs t — The dead here mentioned cannot be the mor- 
ally dead, because there is nothing in the context favor- 
able to such an interpretation. The discourse, as we 
have seen, was delivered upon the occasion of healing 
the man at Bethesda. Greater works thereupon are 
promised, and, as would be seen, works of a physical, not 
moral, character. These greater works are defined as 
being the making of the dead to live in the hour that 
then was. If, however, the dead in their graves — verso 
28th — be not literal, but figurative, it will follow that 
the dead who heard the voice of the Son of God, and 
lived, at the hour that then was, were not really, but 
morally, dead. But to this conclusion Universalists 
will have no objection: yet they will find an objection 
in the sequel. Jesus promised a greater work than 
curing the man at the pool, and the whole place goe3 
to show that this greater work would consist in raising 
some of the dead in Judea. Now, the raising the 
dead is certainly a greater wor/k than curing a dis- 
ease of thirty-eight years standing : but if any should 
be found to believe in Christ, and be converted, could 
this be called a greater work than a miraculous cure? 
There is no miracle wrought in conversions — all is or- 
dinary, and proceeds upon the established principles 
of mind and morals: but all miracles are extraordi- 
nary ; and, therefore, the curing of the man at Bethes- 
da was a greater work than raising the dead in the hour 
that then was, if Universalism be true ! Christ, in heal- 
itfig the man did an extraordinary work ; but he prom- 
ised to do something still more extraordinary; but when 
we come to find out what it was, it turns out to be the 
ordinary work of conversion ! The boat of Universal- 
ism runs upon a bar just here. Nor is this all : if the 
scheme be true, the cure of the man at Bethesda was 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



143 



itself a moral work ! The context is against TJniver- 
salism. 

Secondly — That the dead brought to life in the hour 
that then was, were not the morally, but the literally, 
dead, appears with absolute evidence from the history 
of the times. To assert that the morally dead, at that 
time, were restored to spiritual life, is to assert a false 
fact. If any were there converted to Christianity, it is 
but reasonable to suppose that the apostles were they ; 
but their history denies this : they were profoundly ig- 
norant of all that made up the Christian religion, as 
they knew not, till after the resurrection, that this great 
event had anything to do in the administration of the 
Messiah. Peter himself was not converted till after the 
hour that then was — but, ''when thou art converted," 
said Christ to him, " strengthen thy brethren." The 
work of conversion, by the Gospel, was not then going 
on : multitudes, however, were gathered about the per- 
son of the Lord ; but the influences by which both the 
apostles and the more remote disciples were attracted to 
him, were other than those which afterward converted 
so many thousands. Besides, the fact stated that the 
dead at that time should hear the voice of the Son of 
Q-od, and live, is insisted on a something more than had 
been observed formerly among men : but if, by raising 
the dead, in this case, the impartation of spiritual life 
were meant, it was, in fact, nothing more wonderful than 
that which had been common from the days of Adam to 
Moses ! What force would there have been in the words 
had Christ said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, the 
hour is coming, and now is, when men shall be convert- 
ed, just as they have been since the world began !" 
Verily, verily, in that case the Lord would have spoken 
with as little sense or reason as a Universalist clergy- 
man ! 

Thirdly — That it was the dead in body, and not in 



144 



LECTUEES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



'morals, intended at the place in question, is again mani- 
fest from another part of the history of those times. 
"And they that hear shall live," said Jesus. But was 
this true touching the morally dead? They heard his 
discourses, and not a few even believed on him, but, af- 
ter all, did not live ! Did the Lawyers, Pharisees, 
Scribes, Priests, and Rulers, hear the voice of the Son 
of God ? Certainly they did. But did they live ? were 
they converted? When, by his ministry, he gave the 
fullest proofs of his Messiahship, and took away every 
cloke or excuse for sin, making it so clear that he was 
the Son of God, that some of them committed the sin 
against the Holy Ghost in presuming to league him with 
Beelzebub— having heard his voice, did they live spirit- 
ual lives? If so, how came it to pass that they murder- 
ed him? Nearly the whole Jewish nation heard his 
voice, but, so far from living in the sense here excepted 
against, as a nation they disregarded him, and a miscre- 
ant and robber became, by actual vote, more popular 
than he ! But, if it be argued that the term " hear " — 
" the dead shall hear" — means more than is usually un- 
derstood, this will make the case worse ; for, as we have 
already seen, such hearing and turning to the Lord were 
not a character of those times. Upon the whole, we have 
confined Universalism between the upper and nether 
mill-stones : the reader may judge of its appearance in 
the chest below. 

Fourthly — Having thus demonstrated that the "dead" 
in the hour that then was, were those who had died of 
physical disease, it follows that " all who are in their 
graves " indicates all that part of mankind capable of do- 
ing good or ill — that had gone from the world by what 
we call natural death. But as it is assumed by Univer- 
salists, that the death and resurrection here asserted are 
anagogical or mystical, not literal, we will now reduce 
the assumption to an absurdity. And here, at the out- 



LECTU11ES ON UNI VERS ALISM, 



145 



set, we will allow to Universalists any period in the his- 
tory of the world, or its whole history, for the era of 
this death and resurrection. Their most accredited 
view, however, is this : The Jews, for an indefinite time 
before Christ, at that time, and subsequently, till the fall 
of J erusalem, were morally dead and in their graves ; 
and that, after the fall of the city, Christianity sprang 
up every where — that this great religious revival, in 
fine, is the resurrection here predicted by our Lord. 
But it will follow, if all this be true, 

(1.) That moral death is something very different 
from what men have generally supposed. "All in their 
graves," means all that are in sin and unbelief, as Uni- 
versalists say. Well, " they that have done good," must 
mean, either that the good was done before they died 
morally, and were morally buried, or that it was done in 
being morally dead. If it were done before they died 
morally, they must come forth to the resurrection of life, 
which presents iniquity as the cause of, or, at least, not 
hindering, this joyful resurrection. If the good were 
done by them while buried in sin and ignorance, this 
is a contradiction in terms equivalent to saying, they 
that have done good in doing evil ! The good, there- 
fore, here said to have been done before the resurrec- 
tion, could not have been done in a state of moral death 3 
nor in a state of virtue before the moral death took 
place, as the latter supposition gives the promise of life 
only to apostates from religion — and it does not seem 
likely that Christ intended to make such a promise. It 
follows, 

(2.) That " they who have done evil," has no meaning 
whatever ; for what is the doing of evil, but being mor- 
ally dead ? The whole mass is described as being dead 
and buried, but as having done good or evil. Now, mor- 
al death, as defined by Paul, is simply a state of sin : 
and if the Jews, in this passage, were intended to be 
10 



146 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



represented as in a state of sin, why are they represent- 
ed as having done evil, as if that were something differ- 
ent from the death they were in ? They did evil either 
before they morally died, or in being morally dead. If 
before, they were dead before they died ! You perceive, 
hence, the most perfect absurdity in this worse than mis- 
erable gloss. But it follows, 

(3.) If the scene of this resurrection be laid after the 
destruction of Jerusalem, then "all" the Jews cams 
forth either to life or condemnation, according as they 
had done good or evil before that catastrophe, which is 
contrary to fact in the premises ; for it is notorious that 
the great majority of the Jews that could be saved by 
the Gospel were saved before the destruction of the city, 
and that miserable remnant, " vessels of wrath fitted for 
destruction," were given over and "blinded." But if it 
be contended or allowed, that this great moral resurrec- 
tion took place before the fall of J erusalem, Universal- 
ism is entangled worse and worse ; for those from among 
the Jews who embraced the Gospel and were saved on 
Pentecost, and afterward, had not " done good " in the 
antecedent part of their lives, but great evil— L by wick- 
ed hands " they had crucified and slain the Prince of 
Life, as Peter charged them ! They did not embrace the 
Gospel because they had done good before, but, having 
done immense evil, they were permitted to be saved from 
it by grace. But, 

(4) If the phrases, "have done good," and "have 
done evil," mean that these virtues and vices were to be 
practiced at the time of the moral resurrection, and de- 
scribe the actions of embracing or rejecting the Gospel ; 
it follows that our Lord used the wrong tense of the 
verb : he should have said — "And shall come forth, they 
that will do good, afterward, to the resurrection of life, 
and they that will do evil, afterward, to the resurrection 
of condemnation." It will follow 3 furthermore^ that do- 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



147 



Ing good antecedently to hearing the Gospel, becomes 
the cause of the adjudication to life, which is a feature 
of the subject that even Universalists will not admit ; 
and that doing evil before hearing the Gospel must for- 
ever operate against the reception of it. How perfect- 
ly suicidal, then, is this wretched system of quibbles 
and contradictions ! " Have done good," and " have 
done evil," cannot apply to the persons after they are 
raised up, in reference either to their present or future 
conduct, but to what they had done before they died. 
This is a stubborn fact, which admits of no concealment. 
But, 

(5.) If we admit, for the sake of the case, that the 
J ews who had done good under the Law, came forth, in 
the Christian dispensation, to a resurrection of moral 
life, happiness, and joy; and those who had done evil 
under the Law, came forth to the resurrection of con- 
demnation, ready to be destroyed when Jerusalem fell ; 
the history of fact again defeats the entire hypothesis ; 
for, as we have already seen, there were many thousands 
who had done evil, that came into the Christian church 
and were ornaments of their profession. Besides; had 
it been true that those who had done evil under the 
Law were fated to come forth, under the Gospel, to con- 
demnation, this would have defeated the professed de- 
sign of the Gospel, which, among other aims, was " the 
redemption of the transgressions which were under the 
first testament," as Paul most forcibly declares. 

Thus have we, by a very careful analysis, shown how 
utterly false, heartless, and brainless, this whole system 
of explanation is — how self-contradictory, suicidal, and 
wholly without reason or fact is the scheme of modem 
Universalism. Every part of the Sacred Volume de- 
poses against it. If it's interpretation of the foregoing 
passages can be reconciled to reason, or the common 
sense of mankind, then may the ravings of the maniac, 



148 LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 

or the incoherent wit of " moon-struck madness," be 
commended as sage wisdom and sound philosophy. Vir- 
tue can do us no good, and vice no harm, in reference 
to the future life — the best saint can receive no more, 
and the greatest sinner no less, than eternal blessedness ; 
sin cannot hinder, and holiness can frame no title to 
it. These are the beams, sills, and rafters, of Univer- 
salism ! And when we have fairly ferreted its advo- 
cates out of their domicil, they run out in their night- 
clothes, crying " misrepresentation /" But whether their 
cry be just, is a matter which we submit to the decision 
of an intelligent public. Touching the cause which 
gave rise to the whole unphilosophical scheme, we can- 
not say it was either love to God, or reverence for his 
word. We must search for it among the corruptions of 
human nature. Could we transport ourselves forward 
beyond the history of time, and imagine some one tell- 
ing another of earthly things then past, we might mod- 
estly thus strike upon the cause. The Bard says, or 
seems to say — 

" There rag'd a malady in those bad times 
(E'en certain clergy had peculiar crimes) ; 
It spread from Mississippi to the Thames, 
And pass'd, in various climes, by various names. 
Theologists, with wisdom on their sides, 
In five small letters wrote, its name is 4 pride 
Phrenologists pronounc'd it— and no dream — 
'Enormously developed self-esteem, 
With conscientiousness and rev'rence low,' 
Or words of art that sounded somehow so : 
Sometimes, like metal coined, 'twas known to pass, 
Hence the shrewd commonalty call'd it 1 brass;' 
And chemists, not inaptly, term'd it 4 gas:' 
It had a name for ev'ry zone of earth, 
But 'twas the 'Big-head,' in the mouth of mirth." 

You will perceive that, for this Lecture, we have se- 
lected only four passages from the Evangelists. The 
number might have been swelled indefinitely ; but if, as 



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149 



we judge, the foregoing selections impose insuperable dif- 
ficulties upon Universalisni, any further argument, in 
this department, would supererogate, and be, indeed, 
as if we were beating a fallen foe. Our labors, up to 
this point, will be apt to find no answer from the Uni- 
versalist clergy : until an answer is attempted, we deem 
it unnecessary to present any more difficulties. If all, 
or any one of the foregoing difficulties and dilemmas be 
true and real, the whole scheme must fall. We have 
pulled away the pillars of the pantheon, and every idol 
is dashed in pieces like a potter's vessel. 



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LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS. 



LECTUKE VII 

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

There is no system of human philosophy that pre- 
sumes so much upon the ignorance of mankind— none 
begs so many of his doubts, or is satisfied with so few 
of his reasons, or so little of his consistency— as Univer- 
salism. It is not a system put up regularly, or embraced 
uniformly by its advocates : for what you see to-day, 
may vanish to-morrow ; and what at one time you per- 
ceive very plainly, at another is involved in mist. It 
has, therefore, not inaptly been compared to a shadow, 
as having neither body nor parts. However, there are 
some general principles upon which we may fasten our 
arguments. Universalists acknowledge the Bible as in- 
spired and authoritative: here then we can meet them. 
There are certain passages which they quote and rely on 
as proof-texts, and which, therefore, we are bound to ex- 
amine, and redeem from their use. Our present Lec- 
ture will be devoted to this service. But, as we have 
done this in part already, we will select a few of the re- 
maining passages, and, by a careful analysis of them, 
bring our labors to a closo. We shall make a distinct 
section for every text introduced. 

§ I. The promise to Abraham. — " I will bless them 
that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee : and in 
thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed;" Gen. 
xii, 3. "And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep 
my covenant, therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee, in 
their generations;" Gen. xvii, 9. There were other 
promises to Abraham and his seed; but the above con- 
tain the sum and marrow of the whole. Here, then, as 
it is said that all families, or nations, or kindreds, of the 
earth shall be blessed, in Abraham and in his seed, it is 
taken for granted, by Universalists, that, until some shall 
be found who belong to no family, nation, or kindred, 



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151 



the entire human race must be regarded as secure, in ref- 
erence to eternal life. 

But, upon what condition did Abraham become the 
father of many nations ? and by what stipulations must 
his seed obtain the inheritance? We answer, Abraham 
became the father of nations because he believed in the 
word spoken to him, and his seed became a blessing to 
mankind because he was obedient to the divine covenant. 
Every temporal and spiritual blessing was secured to 
Abraham and his seed on the condition of fidelity. This 
is apparent from what we have just now repeated ; for, 
after God had changed the name of Abram into Abra- 
ham ; had promised him abundant fruitfulness in the 
way of posterity; had established the covenant with 
him ; had secured to him the land of Canaan ; and had 
said that he would be his God, and the God of his seed 
after him: "therefore" said God to him — for the reasons 
assigned — " thou shalt keep my covenant, thou, and thy 
seed after thee, in their generations." From which it is 
as plain as any other part of the covenant, that none of 
the blessings promised, temporal or spiritual, were de- 
signed for Abraham or his seed only as they should be 
found to "keep" the stipulations or conditions of the 
covenant. 

We gather the above from the Book of Genesis, and, 
had we no other lights, that alone would be sufficient to 
explode the commentary of Universalists ; but we hap- 
pen to have an infallible commentator on the promise 
of God to Abraham. If we can have the views of Paul 
fairly expressed as to the meaning and scope of that 
promise, we ought to be satisfied. If Paul finds Uni- 
versalism in it, we shall acquiesce. Let us see. The 
apostle sets out by stating, that "Abraham believed in 
God, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness." 
Faith in God was his distinguishing excellence. But 
Paul immediately adds, " Know ye, therefore, that they 



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LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



who are of faith, tho same are the children of Abraham. 
And the Scripture anticipating that God would justify 
the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel 
to Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be bless- 
ed." But, as if to anticipate the objections of our un- 
believing times, the apostle draws his own conclusion, 
which you shall have in his own words : "So, then, they 
who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." 
The case stands thus — God says to Abraham, " In thee 
shall all nations be blessed." A question is interposed, 
how will they be blessed ? and Paul answers, through 
faith in the Messiah. It follows that, without faith in 
Christ, the blessing of Abraham cannot come upon ei- 
ther Jew or Gentile. 

I will not, however, venture my own conclusions and 
reasonings in a case where we have the most lucid com- 
mentary of Paul. The above truths are confirmed by 
the following : " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse 
of the Law, being made a curse for us : for it is written, 
Cursed is every one that hangeth upon the tree — that 
the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles 
through Jesus Christ ; that we might receive the prom- 
ise of the Spirit through faith. Brethren, I speak after 
the manner of men ; though it be but a man's covenant, 
yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth 
thereto. Now, to Abraham and his seed were the prom- 
ises made. He saith not, 'And to seeds,' as of many ; 
but, as of one, 'And to thy seed,' which is Christ. # * 
Wherefore, the Law was our schoolmaster unto Christ, 
that we might be justified by faith. But after that 
faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. 
For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ 
Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into 
Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor 
Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither 
male nor female — for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 



LECTURES ON UNIVEKSALISM. 



153 



And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and 
heirs according to the promise" (see Gal. iii, passim). 
We put the only question, now, which is important in 
this disquisition: Who are heirs of the promise of 
blessedness, given to Abraham ? and the last sentence 
alone forever settles that question : they are believers in 
Christ. True Christians are Christ's heritage, and heirs 
according to the promise made to the father of the faith- 
ful. This is all that Paul has made of this great promise, 
and it is enough, and satisfactory. 

But, I have found, when Universalists are hard push- 
ed for argument (which is generally the case), that they 
have a way of converting a promise conditioned on obe- 
dience, as all promises are, into a prediction or prophesy 
of future events ! Thus, ' : in thee shall all nations be 
blessed," points to a time when all mankind will be holy 
and happy in heaven, however viciously they may spend 
their whole lives. But, as this feature of Universalism 
has been obliterated in the early part of our labors, we 
shall do no more than allude to it here. We have 
seen how Paul understands the Abrahamic promise, 
and who are the heirs of it — facts that none will ven- 
ture to dispute — and, believing that Universalists will 
be the last men to gnaw this rasp, we dismiss it here. 

§ II. The children of the Resurrection. — "And Jesus 
answering, said unto them, The children of this world 
marry, and are given in marriage : but they who shall 
be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the res- 
urrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given 
in marriage : neither can they die any more : for they 
are equal unto the angels ; and are the children of 
God, being the children of the resurrection" (Luke xx, 
34-361 

Universalists assume, from this passage, that the res- 
urrection is a purgative and purifying process for the 
souls of all men— for those who die in their sins, and 



154 



LECTURES ON UNIVEHSALISM. 



those who obtain pardon in this life. When we demon- 
strate that there is no such thing as pardon in their sys- 
tem (see Lectures I and 11 ) ; that the judgment takes 
place after death [Lecture III)] that Judaism came di- 
vinely to its end before the fall of Jerusalem ; that the 
second advent of Christ is still future, even to us (Lec- 
ture V)\ and that there are unwieldy difficulties at ev- 
ery point besetting the whole system (LectureVI) ; they 
fly, as a dernier resort, as a final hope, to the resurrec- 
tion as a means of conversion, and here prepare for a 
general and final battle. Having fled from point to 
point — having twisted and turned with every fold of the 
serpent; retreated from pillar to post, from brake to 
den, from the original paradise to the fogs and mists of 
Babylon, and thence into hades — and, determining to be 
driven no further, they plant their flag-staff on the rock 
of the resurrection, and call upon their forces as to the 
battle of Armageddon ! Here, then, we meet them, and 
from that point drive them. 

1. We have a right to inquire, in the first place, 
whether any one, bearing a divine commission, has ever, 
at any time, spoken of the resurrection as a means of 
moral purification : and we state positively that there is 
no such passage in the whole Bible. On the contrary, 
there are many passages which most clearly enjoin a re- 
ligious character as the means of making the resurrec- 
tion a blessing. In the teachings of Christ to which we 
have had occasion to allude in reference to a particular 
place, and which place we demonstrated could have no 
application to a moral revival, they that had " done 
good" are to come "forth to the resurrection of life," 
and they that had "done evil, to the resurrection of 
damnation." The life to be enjoyed, and the damna- 
tion to be suffered, are life and damnation after the res- 
urrection ; and did we even admit this resurrection as 
moral, it would nevertheless be followed by damnation! 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



155 



But. as there can be no just damnation without guilt, 
and the guilty persons are said to be raised, how can 
that be called a moral resurrection, which leaves the sub- 
ject of it to damnation? Truly, it would be better for 
such persons never to be raised at all ! So, then, there 
not only are no passages which speak of the resurrection 
as a moral purification, but there are many which deny 
to it this imaginary power. 

2. The studious Bible-reader has often, without doubt, 
observed what is proposed to sinners as the means of 
their purification. And what is it? How does it read? 
What say Jesus and his apostles ? Let us read a few 
texts, varied somewhat from the truth, in order to suit 
this darkness-loving scheme of Universalism. " To him 
give all the prophets witness, that, should sinners fail 
during life to believe on and obey him, they shall, nev- 
ertheless, in being raised from the dead, be purified 
from all sin;" Acts x, 43. "Be it known unto you, 
therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is 
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins : and by him 
all that believe, first, are justified from all things from 
which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses ; 
and, afterward, all that believed not during life, shall be 
justified and purified in their resurrection from the 
dead ;" Acts xiii, 38, 29. " Repent and be converted, 
that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of re- 
freshing shall come from the presence of the Lord ; but, 
if you do not obey this command, there is another pro- 
vision made for you ; for you shall, if you fail here, be 
converted at the resurrection :" Acts iii, 19. "Repent 
and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus 
Christ, for the remission of sins : and if you do not, an 
awful doom awaits you; for every one of you shall be 
pardoned and purified when God shall raise you from 
the dead !" Acts ii, 38. " But the righteousness which 
is of faith speaketh on this wise. * # * The word is 



156 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



nigh thee, in thy month and in thy heart: that is, khi* 
word of faith which we preach : that if thou shalt confess 
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy 
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou 
shalt he saved : hut should you fail to confess and be- 
lieve, and thus fail also to be saved by faith in his resur- 
rection, you will be saved without faith in your own, so 
that in either case ye are equally safe. Tor with the 
heart man believeth unto righteousness 5 and with the 
mouth confession is made unto salvation. The case is 
indeed thus, touching the world that now is, but respect- 
ing that which is to come, faith and confession have 
nothing to do, for in the resurrection all shall come forth 
into righteousness and salvation " [see Romans x, 5-1 1. 

Let us now suppose that the above passages, adapted 
to the demands of Universalism, were found in the 
Scriptures ; would they alter the system in the least 
from what we now find it ? and if any should even then 
question the doctrine, would not these passages be quo- 
ted as triumphant proofs of it? Yes, every neophyte 
would be armed and equipped for battle, saying, The 
apostle expressly says, u But should you fail to confess 
and believe, and thus fail also to be saved by faith in 
his resurrection, you will be saved, without faith, in your 
own — so that, in either case, you are equally safe !" 

3. But the intelligent reader cannot fail to have no- 
ticed the great means of moral purification, set forth in 
the New Scriptures, namely, "the precious blood" of 
our gracious Messiah. To this all the Law and the 
Prophets gave testimony. We cannot pause here to ad- 
duce every passage that might be brought in proof, for 
this would be to transcribe a great part of the Testi- 
monies and Epistles. Indeed, the blood of Jesus had 
for its cardinal design the remission of sins, or the pur 
gation of the conscience, and, aside from this, cannot be 
imagined to have any meaning whatever. But this Uni 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



157 



versalism admits. But again, we most respectfully in- 
quire, whether, if the blood of Christ fail to purify us 
while we live, there be any power in it for purification 
afterward. Between death and the resurrection, there 
can be no purgation ; for the wise man has said, and the 
application is forcible to all matters of religion, " What- 
soever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might ; for 
there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, 
in the grave whither thou goest;" Eccl. ix, 10. The 
dead body, as I take it, knows nothing in the grave-; but 
if the spirit, whose body died under guilt, and which it- 
self was dismissed by death in a separate state, under- 
goes a purgation in some orcus between death and the 
resurrection, this stands opposed to the above text; for 
purification cannot take place without a work, or device, 
or knowledge, or wisdom. Or, if " the grave " do not 
mean so much, but signifies only the receptacle of the 
body, while the spirit goes to some other place to be pu- 
rified, then the resurrection theory of purgation is ex- 
ploded ; for the spirit is purified in antecedence. But, 
if the spirit remains under conscious guilt between death 
and the resurrection, this explodes modern Universal- 
ism ; for there is then a punishment for sin after death, 
and some of the human race have been enduring it for 
thousands of years, and must endure it till the resurrec- 
tion, which, according to Universalism, will purify them ! 
To be consistent, our friends must adopt the theory of 
soul-sleeping — that the wicked sinner, body, soul, and 
spirit, remains perfectly unconscious from death till the 
resurrection : but it is questionable whether this evasion 
will be of any avail. For, in the first place, this scheme 
admits that there is a punishment for sin after "death. 
It certainly is a great punishment to be deprived of life 
for thousands of years, while it was possible for us to be 
living and enjoying. To be deprived of an age or two 
of happiness, is an immense loss. But, in the second 



158 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



place, to affirm that the resurrection of the dead is a 
converting institution, is to assume not only that God 
is more merciful to the worst men than he is to others, 
and thus partial and capricious, but is to assume, like- 
wise, that he has revealed the resurrection as a purifying 
process, in a moral point of view, which he has not. 
Some men take the Lord at his word, and do with their 
might the things he enjoins them : but others, more 
heaven-daring and hardened in crime, pay him no rev- 
erence whatever ; yet for these he has made a provision 
which the others never thought of from anything he had 
said — and though the good were not injured either in 
life or estate, as they were equally sure of immortality ; 
still to the bad there appears an excess of mercy and a 
partiality incompatible with the candor and sincerity of 
the Eternal. It follows, that if we could look into Uni- 
versalism to the very bottom, we would see that there is 
no such thing as a positive evil in the universe — that 
God is as much the author of what we call sin, as he is 
of holiness and truth, and that men are no more to 
blame for the commission of crime, than they are for 
having the gout or rheumatism. All moral evils flow 
from physical : of course, Adam and Eve, who were 
made subject to death by the laws of their being, would 
never have sinned, had they not first taken sick ! Eve 
became unwell first, and the disease being contagious, 
she imparted it to Adam. Poor creatures ! they were 
worse to do than are we, their children : for we can call 
a physician ; but there was not a doctor in Paradise ! It 
follows, too, that if we could arrive at perfect health, we 
would not commit a single sin. But matters of fact 
spoil this theory, as we find many healthy persons the 
greatest sinners, and many of the most infirm the best 
Christians. Dr. Watts once said, that the diseases of 
good men are like breaks in the walls of dungeons : they 
let in the light of heaven upon the inmates. 



LECTURES ON UNIVERS'ALISM. 



159 



4. But. as Universalists will have it that the resur- 
rection will be a purifying process for the souls of all 
who die in their sins, a show of Scripture authority must 
of course be made ; and the passage we have placed at 
the head of this section is appealed to with great confi- 
dence — but with what success a close analysis of the 
place will show. The passage proves, 

First — That there will be no marriages among those 
who shall obtain immortality. 

Secondly — That death, which, on earth, had rendered 
marriages necessary to supply the wastes of mortality, 
will be known no more. 

Thirdly — That these happy immortals will resemble 
and be equal to the angels of G-od in heaven. But, 

Fourthly — That all those who shall be able to reach 
this glorious niche of elevation "shall be accounted 
worthy " of it in having formed, on earth, a character 
of holiness and piety. 

You will, therefore, perceive that this promise of dy- 
ing no more, or of being equal to the angels, is made to, 
and asserted of, such only as are worthy. To be worthy 
of " that world and the resurrection," is equal to " well 
done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy 
of thy Lord." This character of worthiness is consider- 
ed by our Lord as acquired either before the resurrec- 
tion, or in it, or afterward. If in it, then " they who 
shall be accounted worthy " is no longer a distinguish- 
ing phrase, since, if Universalism be true, all will then 
be alike worthy. If afterward, then there will be no 
praise in being made good by physical power, which at 
once is destructive of all ideas of moral worth. If those 
who die in rebellion shall rise reconciled because they 
cannot hinder or postpone the reconciliation, how much 
praise will be due to them? Can the Lord say to these, 
" Well done ?" He might, indeed, say, of his own pow- 
er, "I have done great things," and, to them " Well#it 



160 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM, 



has been done unto you;' 3 but never can say in truth, 
" Well done, good and faithful servant," if Universalism 
be true. 

It remains, therefore, that the character of worthiness 
here laid down as a key of immortality, is to be acquired 
in this life ; for our Lord never loaded his doctrine with 
absurdities or contradictions. Men are worthy in view 
of the things they do voluntarily, not in view of what 
they receive when they cannot avoid it. The resurrec- 
tion will come unavoidably upon all men, great and 
small, good and bad ; but it is the province of the Gos- 
pel to enable us to make it a blessing to ourselves, by 
" doing good." The doing good by a mixed being, that 
is, a being made up of matter and mind, is connected 
by the laws of the empire of righteousness, with as ma 
ny states of the same being as may be supposed to take 
place in the future : and if the body, though " vile," can 
here be subjected voluntarily to the superior law of mor- 
als, and be thus connected with it, it is but just to con- 
clude that, in a future state, this connection will be more 
visible and glorious. There is a connection, therefore, 
divine and indissoluble, between what faith does for us 
here, and the state of the body at, in, and after, the res- 
urrection ; so that it is sound philosophy as well as true 
religion, "to them who, by patient continuance in well- 
doing, seek for glory, honor, and immortality," God will 
give eternal life. 

§ III. The whole Creation. — We now approach a pas- 
sage of Scripture which is claimed by Universalists as 
if it taught their doctrine without any doubt. In the 
following remarks we shall aim to show that the " whole 
creation" (Rom. viii, 18-25) means nothing other than 
the literal earth and its inanimate appendages. We 
have not room for a long argument : we depend upon 
what has been said already to show that Universalism 
cannot be true. By the following investigation it will 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



161 



be seen how easily and successfully the eighth of Romans 
may be redeemed from an ignoble service. 

I have often admired the candor and child-like inno- 
cense of Paul, this great embassador of Jesus, as he 
draws the contrast between what we are now. and what 
we will be at the renovation of creation : " For I reckon," 
says he, " that the sufferings of this present time are not 
worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be re- 
vealed in us." What are a few months and years of an- 
guish % What are the little sufferings under which we 
groan here % What are the persecution, the abuse and 
slander, the torments and death, that fall upon us here, 
"for a moment," in comparison with those divine honors 
which we shall reap in heaven, when God shall make 
all things new ! Here we may suffer the want of food 
and raiment — men of the world may oppress us — false 
brethren may deceive and shame us — but heaven will 
infinitely more than compensate for all ! Our mental 
powers shall be made perfect in their kind, so as to gath- 
er in and retain every species of knowledge, physical and 
moral; our moral nature will be thoroughly purified 
from every taint of sin and cloud of guilt ; and our bodi- 
ly structure shall be restored to uninterrupted and eter- 
nal health, made spiritual and incorruptible like the 
glorious body of J esus ! Ought we not, then, to bear 
our momentary afflictions with fortitude, patience, and 
even with joy? 

But in that brightest and most blessed of all the days 
in our history, a new order of nature will arise to . our 
vision ! The heavens and the earth that are now, are in 
waiting for a thorough regeneration. When man fell, 
disorder rushed in upon the seasons ; the soil was smit- 
ten with a burning curse ; the air and the waters were 
impregnated with poison and the seeds of disease ; mis- 
ery grew up from the field, and every element of nature 
became the reservoir of the means of oppression, cruel- 
11 



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ty, degradation, and death. " Cursed is the ground for 
thy sake!" said God to guilty man; and "the ground 
which the Lord hath cursed/' was a proverb before the 
flood. — -Gen. v, 29. For six thousand years this dread- 
ful original curse has been corroding the vitals of crea- 
tion, eliminating its baleful powers from the center to 
the circumference ! What was designed as the abode of 
man, has been usurped by anarchy itself ; and though 
the laws of nature still produce their effects, nature her- 
self is vitiated to the core ! Man is almost driven from 
his dominion by iron-hearted enemies that encroach per - 
petually, and perpetually annoy ! 

"A part how small of this terraqueous globe 
Is tenanted by man! The rest, a waste! 
War ! famine, pest, volcano, storm, and lire, 
Intestine broils, oppression, with her- heart 
Wrapp'd up in triple brass, besiege mankind !" 

But the promises of God, as published by seers of the 
olden time, are burdened and do travail with the stupen- 
dous theme of the renewal of creation, when, as the tes- 
timony runs, "there shall be no more curse." The 
saints, in the Christian age, stand up to represent the 
wishes of nature itself ; and Paul, in the passage before 
us, most anxiously wishing the physical palmgenesia or 
regeneration of the earth, personifies creation, and throws 
it into the posture of expecting the accomplishment of 
the promises made to the saints ! " The earnest expecta- 
tion of creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons 
of God." The creation, you will perceive, is here dis- 
tinguished from, and does not therefore mean, the saints. 
The saints, or sons of God, are to be manifested, and 
the creature or the creation expects that revelation. It 
is true the saints themselves expect it, but they are nev- 
er styled the creation. Nor can the term " the creation " 
mean the Gentile world, for they did not expect any 
such manifestation. As, then, we see that the word 



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163 



cannot mean the saints, does not mean the heathen, must 
not be interpreted of the brute creation ; the question 
is, what can, does, or must, it mean? The answer is, it 
signifies the earth itself, with all its appendages, as con- 
tradistinguished from man. This is the only rational 
interpretation of the place. All the difficulty that any 
pretend to start upon the premises, is, the seeming im- 
propriety of speaking of the earth as waiting and expect- 
ing an event of which all inanimate objects must be in- 
different, or know and care nothing. Well, let us look 
at the matter carefully. If " creation " mean the saints, 
that is, their spirits, then the apostle is open to the 
charge of confusing his readers, for he speaks of the 
sons of Grod as being waited for by creation. If, by 
" creation," he mean the bodies of the saints, as distin- 
guished from their spirits, then the same objection lies 
against inanimate matter, as in the exegesis I have 
given. It cannot, then, mean the saints, body or spirit, 
or both together. If, for the purpose of getting an in- 
tellectual hope, the objector fall back upon the heathen 
world, and represent it as anxiously waiting and hoping 
for the apocalypse of the sons of God, this were to 
plunge into deeper difficulties still, for this same apostle 
describes the heathen as " having no hope, and without 
Grod in the world;" Eph. ii, 12. Please read Paul's de- 
scription of the heathen world, in the first chapter of Ro- 
mans, and you will suppose there, that the heathen had 
their thoughts engaged about anything rather than the 
revelation of the sons of G-od. 

But, after all, where is the impropriety of represent- 
ing the earth itself as waiting for, and anxiously desir- 
ing, the manifestation of the saints'? Paul is not alone 
in such personifications. Peter, speaking of the renova- 
tion of nature, grasps the whole history of the earth, and 
mentions a time when the world, a being overflowed with 
water, perished." The same objections may be brought 



164 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



against the perishing of the earth, as against its waiting 
or expecting. We speak of the regeneration of heaven 
and earth, as fluently and readily as if we conceived 
them to he two intelligent persons ; and none question 
the propriety of our language : but if we speak of the 
same heavens and earth as waiting and anxious to be re- 
generated, there are those who will cavil ! So great is 
the force of habit and thought, and so easily are we 
moved by a train of thinking to which our minds have 
not been accustomed ! The third chapter of second Pe- 
ter, and Romans viii, 18-25, are precisely parallel, har- 
monize, and illustrate each other. And it is noteworthy, 
that Peter alludes to the writings of Paul on the reno- 
vation, in the following words : " Our beloved brother 
Paul, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath writ- 
ten unto you: as also in all his Epistles, speaking of 
these things ; and in which are some things hard to be 
understood;" 2 Pet. iii, 15, 16. According to the prom- 
ise of God, "we look," says Peter, "for new heavens and 
a new earth, wherein the just shall dwell;" and "the 
earnest expectation of creation waiteth for the manifes- 
tation " of these just persons, that it may accommodate 
itself to their character and circumstances. God will 
not make new our persons, and then leave us without a 
habitation. He will renovate nature for our place of 
abode, for the dwelling of perpetual and perfect righ- 
teousness. By a beautiful figure, creation itself is thus 
represented as anxious to revert to its primitive glories, 
from which it was precipitated by the apostasy of its ter- 
restrial lord and head. 

The apostle has furnished us with a knowledge of the 
cause of the great change that came upon creation. He 
lets us know that it was sin. u For the creation was 
made subject to vanity, not willingly;" that is, not be- 
cause there was a vicious or dilapidating principle orig- 
inally in it; the subjecting principle came from abroad, 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



165 



was foreign, exotic, pernicious. The fact that the crea- 
tion was subjected to vanity, is an admission that it is 
not now in its original character — it has been changed. 
It fell along with the fall of man ! The character of this 
change has been described already, but some remarks 
which we shall immediately make on the term " vanity," 
may afford additional light. The creation was made 
subject to vanity — but how far? and in what does the 
vanity consist? The word in the Greek is malaiotees, and 
signifies barrenness, uselessness, unprofitableness, empti- 
ness, &c. When applied to men it may denote misery, 
disappointment, calamity, ignorance, perversity, false- 
hood. In the case before us, applied to the creation at 
large, it signifies nothing short of emptiness, barrenness, 
sterility ; or, in other words, is the exact definition of 
the curse of unfruitfulness which God pronounced upon 
the ground, for man's sake. The earth is ever prolific 
of something ; but the things necessary to the subsist- 
ence of man, must be forced from the soil " in the sweat 
of his face." Thistles and thorns, and no doubt also 
noisome vermin in infinite detail, were generated in land 
and water, by the foreign perversity introduced into the 
elements. Such, we say, is the vanity or uselessness that 
has fallen upon creation. It would require a volume for 
its details. A mere hint must suffice, and will suffice 
for the intelligent. 

But we are told that the " creation was made subject 
to vanity, not willingly." What does this mean? It 
cannot mean that Adam sinned against his will ; for he 
determined to sin, and was not deceived, and, therefore, 
willingly and willfully subjected himself and his race to 
misery and death : and because he did it willingly, God 
never forgave that sin. Every man, to this day, has to 
pay the penalty, death! But every difficulty vanishes 
when we understand, by the term " creation," nature, or 
this universal mundane sphere. It, by reason of the 



166 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



sin of Adam, was subjected to vanity, emptiness, barren- 
ness, &c., contrary to its original constitution, or, as 
Paul is translated, "not willingly." Ail the tendencies 
of nature originally, all its impulses and laws, all the 
combinations*of its elements, were arranged by the Great 
Father and Maker of all, for the production of good 
fruits, happiness, joy, peace. But sin poisoned and de- 
ranged the whole machine, and set it moving in a retro- 
grade and inverse direction — threw over it and through 
it the bondage of obstructions and corruption. Who 
will say that creation itself is not in bondage? Who can^ 
affirm that she enjoys her original and primeval liberty? 
No one who believes the Bible. 

Another question is important. Who subjected crea- 
tion to bondage ? Some commentators say that it was 
Adam ; but the context does not seem to allow this. 
He subjected himself and his posterity, it is true, to the 
bondage of death and of the grave ; but he and his race 
are not the creation here intended, as we have shown 
before. You will allow me to add, that Adam did not sin 
" in hope :" but he who subjected the creation to bond- 
age, so bound it as to allow the expectation of deliver- 
ance, that is, intelligent beings were permitted to anti- 
cipate the breaking of every cord of its bondage. Let 
me here repeat the whole passage, as translated by 
Doddridge : " For the creation was made subject to vani- 
ty, not willingly, but by him who subjected it in hope, 
that the creation shall be set free from the bondage of 
corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God." 
Now, it is true that the human race was subjected in 
hope; for, as we have seen and elsewhere shown, very 
early intimations were given of a Divine Deliverer from 
sin : but it is equally true that the human race is not 
intended by this passage, If we understand the race 
of man, or any part of it, by "the creation," the apostle 
is made to say that the sons of God shall be delivered 



LECTURES ON TJNIVERSALISM, 



167 



into the liberty of the sons of God, which would be a 
mode of expression unworthy of him and of the subject, 
and a source of confusion to his readers. The liberfy 
of the sons of God is one thing, and the coming of crea- 
tion into it, another. Upon the whole, it was God him- 
self who subjected creation to vanity, emptiness, sterili- 
ty, and uselessness, because of the sin of one man; but 
when he did it, it was the intention, on his part, to re- 
store it to its primitive glory, and fit it up for the abode 
of his terrestrial sons, who, during the progress of earth's 
gloomy ages, should be faithful to him. In the whole 
of this passage, the creation and the sons of God, or 
saints, are kept all along distinct) and separate, as will be 
more clearly seen in the progress of our investigations. 

The whole sublunary creation has thus been alienated 
from God, and made to burn under his curse ; " The 
whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together 
until now !" The earth and all that are upon it sympa- 
thize in general ruin. The crazy earth " waxing old like 
a garment," supports a crazy and broken population of 
man and beast ! Distress covers land and sea ! One gen- 
eral groan is heaved from every animate heart, while 
unconscious matter, vitiated by the devil, partakes of the 
universal curse t The devil reigns in the air as the prince 
of its power ; has corrupted the waters and vegetation ; 
and the very principle of life which was at first natural 
to creation, is mixed with a certain stygian miasm, and 
produces monsters, distortions, and death ! Infernal 
principles and powers have found their way into light 
and darkness ; into every species of life, intellectual, ani- 
mal, vegetable, and mineral ; and nothing but the puri 
fying process of a universal fiery regeneration, accompa- 
nied with the imprisonment of the great anarch and en 
slaver, can liberate the creation from these chains of 
bondage. It is the bondage of corruption with which 
it was cursed for the sake of man ! But the bondage 



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LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



shall be broken, the, earth shall be made new, and the 
wheels of nature will again play without obstruction, re- 
Visited by the principle of life, and copious eternal life- 
sustaining fruit. Does not all this fully justify the apos- 
tle in asserting liberty of the earth itself % And does 
not the fact of the present physical disorders, justify 
him in speaking of nature herself as in pain to be deliv- 
ered? If the earth has been alienated, as none will dis- 
pute, may she not be adopted % God will bring the va- 
grant planet home, and adopt her into his family of obe- 
dient worlds. This is the delightful testimony of all the 
prophets and apostles. We shall see the process, and 
escape from the ruins ! 

For a while, however, we must suffer the ills of our 
fugitive state. While the whole creation groans, we 
groan with her, as the saints themselves are detached 
parts of the system of the world. I say, detached parts — 
for though we owe our physical being to a process of na- 
ture, and in that being partake of the general calamity, 
frailty, or vanity ; in our spiritual nature we belong to 
another system, and are members of another family. 
Our spirits, being renewed by the grace of God in Christ, 
are not even now foreigners, but children ; but our filia- 
tion is obscure and hidden, and no otherwise acknowl- 
edged than by promise conditioned on fidelity. But our 
bodies are foreigners to the kingdom of God, and must 
so remain till he shall adopt them. The way is now 
open for hearing the apostle: "And not only so" — not 
only is all creation groaning and travailing in pain, and 
waiting for her universal emancipation from the original 
curse of vanity — " but ourselves also, who have received 
the first fruits of the Spirit "—who have been cut off 
from moral connection with Adam, and received a new 
life in Christ — a standing in him which will elevate us 
above the region of the curse—" even we ourselves " — 
because we are connected on the other hand with the 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM, 



169 



fortunes of the first man, disease, a vitiated body, and 
death — "groan within ourselves, waiting for the adop- 
tion, the redemption of our body. So, then, when our 
bodies shall be adopted as well as our spirits, " the glo- 
rious liberty of the sons of Grod," will be possessed by 
the regenerated earth and regenerated man. Physical 
and moral regeneration will meet at that point. These 
are the grand subjects of Paul in this part of the chap- 
ter. What a theme ! Heaven and earth made new, and 
the saints, body and spirit, made new, and constituted 
subjects of an immortal empire ! Bear it in mind, that 
the theme of Paul here is the regeneration of nature, the 
adoption or regeneration of the bodies of the saints, and 
the union of the two in one everlasting kingdom — the 
former for the territory, and the latter for the subjects. 
A new earth and new immortal men ! 



iro 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM, 



LECTURE VIII. 

KTISIS CREATION. 

" For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the 
manifestation of the sons of God* For the creature was made 
subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who sub- 
jected the same in hope* Because the creature itself also shall be 
delivered from the bondage of corruption) into the glorious liberty 
of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation 
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not on- 
ly so, but ourselves also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, 
even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adop- 
tion, namely, the redemption of our body*" — Rom. viii, 19-24. 

Prom some cause or other, the above passage has been 
ill understood heretofore among writers and speakers 
generally : still there have been some who have grasped 
the right key, and have unlocked the mysteries of the 
place. Among these was President Edwards, who, fifty- 
eight years ago (to wit, in 1789), in reply to Dr. Chaun- 
cy's book on Universalism, gave the true meaning of 
ktisis, which is the key of the passage. More recently, 
we have read some learned writers, who triumphantly 
sustain the same views. In 1844, before we had noticed 
the argument of President Edwards, in our book on 
Universalism, we advocated the same views. The ob- 
ject of the present series is to put our readers in posses- 
sion of these views in a somewhat copious detail. 

1. Of the meaning of the Greek word ktisis. 

It is necessary, in the first place, to remark, that our 
translation of the passage is at fault, and misleads the 
mere English reader: for, what is rendered "the crea- 
ture" in verses 19, 20, and 21, is rendered "creation," 
in verse 22. Had there been uniformity in the trans- 
lation, some causes of difficulty might have been avoid* 
ed. The original word is ktisis, in all the three verses 
in question. 

Now, the meaning of ktisis is simply the creation. This 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS!*!. 



171 



must be acknowledged as its meaning, let the results be 
what they may. It occurs, in the New Testament, in 
four other passages, and to these we now invite the at- 
tention of the reader. 

1. We begin with Mark xvi, 15 : " Go ye into all the 
world, and preach the Gospel to every creature " — pas- 
see tee ktisei. It is difficult to make this passage plain- 
er than it is. The apostles were to go out over all parts 
of the earth, and preach to the people in all its territo- 
ries. They were to preach in all creation. Here is a 
common-place metonymy, the container for the contain- 
ed. The creation contained the people to be instructed ; 
and it is in this sense only, and by taking into view the 
objects of the Gospel, that mankind can be regarded as 
all creation. Creation, then, the whole creation, here 
means simply the universal globe : this is the basis of 
the idea; but by a beautiful and necessary metonymy, it 
indicates the people to whom the proclamation was to be 
made. Similar forms of speech are adopted a thousand 
times in the Bible, in reference to other things: the 
prophets were sent to the house of Israel, for instance ; 
and here, the word house is, by metonymy, made to sig- 
nify the people — not that the word house ever literally 
signifies people. Just so, the apostles were to go and 
preach to the whole creation, because the people were 
scattered and grouped into families all over creation, 
over the various islands and continents of the planet. 
Take any other ground, and you plunge into difficulties 
unmanageable. The very fact that here is confessedly 
a metonymy, is proof positive that the literal meaning 
of the word Idisis, in this passage, is the habitable globe, 
as distinguished from its rational inhabitants, the terri- 
tory where the preaching was to be done, It is synony- 
mous with "all the world JJ (eis ton kosmon hapanta). in 
the first part of the passage. " Go ye into all the world 
and preach the Gospel everywhere you go, to such as you 



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LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS]*!. 



can induce to hear it :" for I suppose not even Univer- 
salists would be so hardy as to imagine that the apostles 
preached to hogs, lions, snakes, bears, wolves, horses, 
and fishes. " Every creature " does not reach so far, 
even in their dizzy dictionary. The apostles under 
stood that they were to preach the Gospel in all the na- 
tions of the earth ; and when they had done so, their 
commission was fulfilled — they had preached the Gos- 
pel in the whole creation which had been given to man. 
This, only, was intended. 

2. The next passage is Gol. i, 23 : "And be not moved 
away from the hope of the Gospel which ye have heard, 
and which was preached to every creature which is 
under heaven." A little attention to the terms here 
employed by the apostle, will show that the word ktisis 
does not mean the human race, but simply their habita- 
tion. The Gospel (ton keruchthentos en passe tee ktisei 
hupo ton ouranon) was preached in the whole creation 
under heaven, or, in the whole world. Not a nation re- 
mained unvisited by these heralds and missionaries. 
Paul does not say, nor does he mean, that every human 
creature, in his day, had heard the Gospel : he means, as 
he says, that the Gospel had been carried into all the 
habitable globe, here styled the whole creation under 
heaven, all the territories of the earth where men re- 
sided. "En passe tee ktisei " means literally " in all crea- 
tion," rather than "to every creature," as all know who 
have examined the subject. I have the very best schol- 
ars and critics on my side in this which ought never to 
have been a controversy ; among the rest, and not least, 
are President Edwards and Philip Doddridge. 

3. The third passage is Col. i, 15 : "In whom we have 
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins : 
who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of 
every creature." Dr. Doddridge remarks, on this 
verse, that he can have no doubt as to the propriety of 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



173 



his own translation, which is, " The first-born of the 
whole creation;" nor can there, indeed, be any doubt of 
its correctness, in the minds of any who intelligently ex- 
amine the subject. Doddridge adopts the translation of 
proototokos, first-born, but rather sides with Fleming and 
Pierce, who think the word is used metonymically, and 
means the Producer of the whole creation. That Christ 
was the first-born in the sense of being older than the 
rest, is not true ; for, in the next verse, it is said, " by 
him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that 
are in earth," &c; and this would be equivalent to mak- 
ing the apostle say, that the Son of God made all things, 
but made himself in the first place ! Proototokos, there- 
fore, means, not that the Son was first created, but that 
he was the original creator or source of the whole crea- 
tion — that all things were made by him and for him, 
and that by him all things consist. Prooto tokos is used 
to carry our thoughts more particularly to his work as 
a Redeemer, and especially to his resurrection from the 
dead. This passage, then, goes to show that the unin- 
carnate Word of Jehovah, called, verse 13, the Son, was 
before all things, made all things, upholds all- things, was 
the producer of universal creation ; but that, in order to 
give immortality to man, he became the Proototokos, or 
first to rise from among the dead, and is the grand pat- 
tern to which all his followers shall be conformed. So 
that, in this place, every creature does not mean every 
human creature, but the whole creation itself. 

4. We come now to examine the only remaining pas- 
sage, where ktisis is used in the New Testament in con- 
nection with " every " or " the whole." The place is found 
in 1 Pet. ii, 13, and, in our version (but for what reason 
is hard to say), reads thus : " Submit yourselves to 
every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake." And 
here we admit that human creation is the thing intend- 
ed ; we make the admission for the best of all reasons, 



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LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS]*!. 



namely, that human creature is the very thing mention- 
ed ; for had the apostle commanded us to submit to the 
whole creation, we would have remained ignorant of the 
modes of our duty. He therefore expresses the idea 
clearly, " Submit yourselves to the whole human creation 
{passe authropinee ktisei) for the Lord's sake." As if he 
had said, " Be kind, courteous, affable, to every body ; 
honor kings and their ministers as far as possible ; yield 
and submit, for the sake of peace, to every thing that 
does not require you to dishonor or desert the word of 
God." It seems, then, that where the apostles mean the 
human creation, they expressly say so : and where they 
mean otherwise, as in the instances formerly adduced, 
they leave the adjective human (anthropince) out of their 
communications. 

5. It is now proper that we come to the investigation 
of this term ktisis — creation — as we find it in the eighth 
chapter .of Romans. Does it mean every human crea- 
ture, in this place % We say, it does not. The foregoing 
criticisms will certainly have weight ; for, if we have 
shown that, in all other places, its primary and literal 
meaning is our sublunary world or planet, the universal 
habitation of all terrestrial beings, it is not likely it has 
a different meaning in this one isolated instance. Some 
(and these are the Universalists, who are nearly always 
centrally and totally wrong in everything) imagine that 
the " whole creation," in this place, means every human 
being, from the beginning to the end of the world. But 
we have seen the error of this assumption, and, in the 
course of this Lecture, will see it more plainly. Others 
have supposed the phrase means the Gentile or heathen 
world, without the Gospel or " means of grace." But 
this hypothesis is futile, as we shall see. Others, we be- 
lieve, have taken the ground, that it means the whole 
body of the saints of all ages. This, however, seems al- 
together unlikely, for reasons to be developed hereafter, 



LECTURES ON UN1VERSALISM. 



175 



Finally, it has been maintained that this "whole crea- 
tion," or this " creature itself," signifies nothing other 
than those infants of all ages whose lot it has been to 
be called away from the world before the age of puberty. 
They, it is argued, " shall be delivered from the bondage 
of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of 
God." Unfortunately, however, for this hypothesis, it 
has not even the merit of being mentioned by the apos- 
tle. Not a word is said of infants in the whole connec- 
tion. Besides, the term ktisis does not possess this 
meaning in any other passage of the Bible. This hy- 
pothesis is brought from too great a distance, has the 
phiz of jejuneness, and must, therefore, be set aside. 
The simple truth is, that God's whole lower creation, by 
which we mean the entire planet called earth, shall be 
liberated from bondage, from all curses, for the glorious 
liberty of the children of God. Having arrived at this 
conclusion by patient investigation, it now behooves us 
to go over the whole premises, and define the other lead- 
ing words in the passage, that the reader may see the 
process by which we come to the above conclusion. But 
this service is deferred to another place. In the mean- 
time, we will examine the word ktisis^ without its quali- 
ties or adjectives. 

This word, by itself, in all the New Scriptures, is used 
just ten times, besides the place in question ; in not one 
of which it means mankind or the human creation. Let 
us examine them : 

1. "But from the beginning of the creation, God 
made them male and female;" Mark x, 6. 

2. " For in those days shall be great affliction, such 
as was not from the beginning of creation;" Mark 
xiii, 19. 

3. " For the invisible things of him from the creation 
of the world, are clearly seen," &e.; ±lom. i, 20. 

4. "Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and 



176 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



worshiped and served the creation more than the Cre- 
ator;" Rom. i, 25. 

5. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: 
old things are passed away;" 2 Cor. v, 17. 

6. " For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth 
anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation;" 
Gal. vi, 15. 

7. "Neither is there any creature," (rather) "nor is 
creation invisible to his sight ; but all things are naked 
and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to 
do;" Heb. iv, 13. 

8. " But Christ being come a high-priest of good 
things to come, by a greater and more perfect taberna- 
cle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this cre- 
ation ;" Heb. ix, 11. 

9. " Where is the promise of his coming ? For since 
the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were 
from the beginning of the creation ;" ,2 Pet. iii, 4. 

10. "These things saith the Amen, the faithful and 
true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God;" 
Rev. iii, 14. 

Now, leaving numbers 5 and 6 out of the account, as 
not pertaining to the argument, but indicative of anoth- 
er or new creation, of which we are not treating ; all the 
other passages mean something distinct from mankind, 
namely, that which we commonly call creation, the globe, 
nature, the earth. In the face of facts like these, why 
will men force a construction on Rom, viii, 19-25, to 
contradict every other place in the Bible? 

If we look into the Septuagint of the Old Testament, 
we shall find ktisis used only three times. 

1. "They smote also the tents of creation, and carried 
away sheep and camels in abundance" (2 Chron. xiv, 15). 
Our version has it, " the tents of cattle." 

2. " Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river Aha- 
va, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



177 



seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, 

and for all our creation" — meaning substance, cattle, 
or property of any kind (Ezra viii, 21). 

3. " Lord, how manifold are thy works ! in wisdom 
hast thou made them all : the earth is full of thy crea- 
tions" (Ps. civ, 24). And here our translators have it 
"riches," meaning the various classes of physical things. 

Klisis is used nine times in the Apocrypha, and in 
every instance agreeably to its use- in the Septuagint 
and the New Testament. The last instance is so beau- 
tiful that we will not withhold it from the reader : li Shem 
and Seth were in great honor among men, and so was 
Adam above every living thing in the creation ;" Eccl. 
xlix, 16. 

Upon the whole, we think the position is now well 
established, that the phrase the whole creation," or 
" the creation itself," or " the creation," is legitimately 
denned, by Scripture usage, to mean creation simply, ir- 
respective of mankind, and not necessarily including 
man. The argument, from the usus loque?idi, is plain- 
ly on our side, and that is considerable, in mn investi- 
gation like this. 

II. Definition of the earnest expectation of creation. 

Now, let creation mean what it may, it cannot mean 
the people or children of God ; for " the earnest expecta- 
tion of creation waits for" their apocalypse or manifesta- 
tion. Nor can it be said of the whole, that it waits for 
a part, if they are the part and whole of the same thing. 
Creation here, then, does not mean the children of God. 
But, if it means the earth itself (which, as we have seen, it 
generally does in the Bible), how can it be said to have 
an anxious expectation of any thing % Well, let the read- 
er say what creation here means. You see it cannot 
mean the family of man in general, or the family of the 
saints in particular, and we have seen what it does mean 
in all other places. 
12 



178 



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We proceed to say, tliat it is perfectly agreeable with 
Scripture usage, to ascribe an earnest expectation too 
creation itself — to the earth, air, fire, and water, of our 
mundane sphere, to the whole machine of our sublunary 
universe. If the reader will not allow this, I will then 
take and handcuff him, and tie him to the wall. If 
creation, in this place, must mean man, because it anx- 
iously expects and waits for some great event, then the 
following passage ("the sea saw it, and fled; Jordan was 
driven back : the mountains skipped like rams, and the 
little hills like lambs," Ps. cxiv) means, "that men saw 
it, and fled ; that men were driven back ; that men skip- 
ped like rams and lambs" (Edwards, p. 232), which 
would be cutting a caper rather too frolicksome for a 
grave occasion. 

It is said in the Scriptures, " thou sword of the 
Lord! how long will it* be ere thou be quiet? Put up 
thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still." If the 
prophet Jeremiah could thus address himself to the 
sword of the Almighty, and reason with it as if it pos- 
sessed intelligence, any inanimate object might be per- 
sonified upon occasion, and addressed as intelligent. 

There is a beautiful passage in Hosea xiii, 14: "I 
will ransom them from the power of the grave : death, 
I will be thy plagues : grave, I will be thy destruc- 
tion." Here death and hades are represented as living 
beings, persons ; but must we suppose they are men, be- 
cause they have attributed to them the powers and capac- 
ities and fears of men? If you do not admit the prin- 
ciple for which we contend, " when once it is established 
that death and the grave mean men; then, as men are 
to be ransomed from the grave and redeemed from 
death, it will follow that men are to be ransomed from 
themselves, and redeemed from themselves ! But there 
is no end to the absurdities which will follow from thig 
mode of construing the Scriptures " (Edwards, p. 233). 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



179 



But the objector says, it is absurd to speak of creation 
as waiting, expecting, groaning, &c. Be careful, friend. 
Rear the following : " Give ear, ye heavens, and I will 
speak ; hear, earth, the words of my mouth !" Deut. 
xxvii, 1. If the heavens and earth can hear, I would 
suppose that the earth might wait, groan, and expect. 
Again : " The little hills rejoice on every side. The pas- 
tures, the valleys, shout for joy: they also sing;" Ps. 
lxv, 12. If so, they may mourn, and groan, and wait, 
and expect, as occasion may require. In Isaiah xxiv, 4, 
we have the following passage, which, pointing to a time 
of great distress and physical changes, begins to open 
the secret of this whole subject : " The earth mourneth 
and fadeth away : the world languisheth and fadeth 
away— the haughty people of the earth do languish. The 
earth is also defiled under the inhabitants thereof; be- 
cause they have transgressed the laws, changed the or- 
dinance, broke the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath 
the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein 
are desolate." Here, then, we have the earth languish- 
ing, mourning, fading, being defiled, and writhing under 
the curse ! May she not also expect better things, and 
wait for her regeneration? There is no more impropri- 
ety in asserting one than the other : nay, if the prophet 
foretold the day when the curse should lie heavily on the 
earth, is the apostle forbidden to foretel that it shall be 
taken off? If the prophet so beautifully describes the 
bondage of corruption under which the very continent 
writhes and groans, may not the apostle say she may 
hope to be delivered from it " for the glorious liberty of 
the children of God?" 

But the objector turns scholar and professor of belles- 
lettres, and says : But the Psalms and the Prophets are 
poetry, while the apostles were plain men, and did not 
use figures. We fancy, however, that Paul and Peter 
were as good poets as Isaiah and Jeremiah. One thing 



180 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS. 



is very certain, and two are not doubtful, that the poetry 
of the prophets did not exceed the truth, and that the; 
style of the apostles, by constant reading, was formedl I 
upon the models of the Law, the Prophets, and the 1 
Psalms. These were the Scriptures of the apostles and 
evangelists. 

Peter says of the antediluvian earth (kosmos), " The 
earth that then was, being overflowed with water, per- 
ished;" 2 Pet. iii, 6. Paul says, quoting the ancients,, 
" Thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the foundation! 
of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands, i 
They shall perish;" Heb. i, 10. Here we have two pas- 
sages, in which one earth is said to have perished, and 
that another shall 'perish. Poetry cannot be pleaded 
here— it is all certainly sober prose : and yet, if any will 
make poetry out of it, it will be neither untrue nor im- 
proper. 

By every rule, then, of sober reason, and of inspired 
Scripture, we are fully warranted in asserting of the 
world, the earth, the whole lower creation or planet, call- : 
ed gee, kosmos, terra, mundus, earth, that it earnestly ' 
expects that all the pure and God-fearing who have, from i 
age to age, grown out of its bowels, will one day be man- 1 
ifested as God's children, and waits for the dawn of that % 
glorious day. \ 

The world that now is can as properly be said to wait \ 
for and expect this divine apocalypse, as the world, that I 
once was, can be said to have perished. Indeed, and I 1 
wish to notice it distinctly, this Rom. viii, 19-24, &c., j 
and 2 Pet. iii, are parallel places in the main. Both 1 
apostles are upon the same theme, the new heavens and ! 1: 
earth ; and Peter acknowledges that Paul had written f 
upon this very subject, but rather obscurely for some ! 
unlearned and unstable souls of that age. We have > i 
some of the same sort left, especially they of the Univer- 1 e 
salian school; "who subvert whole houses, teaching if 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



181 



things they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake: whose 
mouths must be stopped." 

III. Of creation made subject to vanity. 

"For the creation was made subject to vanity, not wil- 
lingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected in hope." 
In order to understand this passage, as a whole, we must 
understand its parts : there is, however, but one word 
of any difficulty in it, and that is the word which we 
translate "vanity" Creation, gee, terra, kosmos, earth, 
has been subjected to something that is called vanity, or, 
as I understand it, "the bondage of corruption," which 
is, beyond question, the same thing. In verse 20, Paul 
says, creation has been "subject to vanity," and in verse 
21, he affirms that it shall be "delivered from the bond- 
age of corruption." Yanity and the bondage of corrup- 
tion, therefore, would seem to be the same thing. Crea- 
tion shall be delivered from that into which it had been 
delivered. This is plain. 

Well, what is this vanity, or bond of corruption ? Ad- 
am was not the creation here metioned : for, though he 
was made subject to vanity in some sense, yet it can- 
not be said of him that he was subjected " not willing- 
ly:" he sinned willingly. If he did not, then God, or 
• some one else, forced him to sin — which could not be sin 
at all. Eve and Adam not only sinned willingly, but 
willfully and perversely : so that the vanity to which 
they were subjected, they assumed willingly. Nor can 
"not willingly" be construed with the power that sub- 
jected : for God never does what he is unwilling to do. 
He subjected creation willingly, or, being himself wil- 
ling, he subjected it as an act of moral justice to his of- 
fending creatures. 

Then what, we again ask, is this vanity or bondage? 
And we answer in the language of Solomon, respecting 
earth and earthly things : " Yanity of vanities, saith the 
preacher : all is vanity." It is remarkable that the same 



182 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALISM. 



word used by Paul, Bom. viii, 20, is that by which the 
LXX translate Solomon in the above text. The word 
is mataiotees. Parkhurst thus defines the word : u vani- 
ty, disappointing misery, that earthly things are vain and 
fleeting, subject to decay, mutability, and corruption ;" 
and then, metaphorically, it means, according to the 
same author, "want of real wisdom, foolishness," and he 
adds, "uselessness, unprofitableness, falsehood," &c. We 
look no further than Parkhurst, for all others would but 
confirm the correctness of his definition. 

Now, it is evident that when God made creation, it was 
good, productive, most prolific, most pleasant, and every 
way inviting as the habitation of man, who was appoint- 
ed to be the head and ruler of - all, only " a little lower 
than the angels." The earth produced, by spontaneity, 
every species of fruit necessary to the sustainment of 
life ; and last, but most important of all, the tree of life 
itself, a conservative power of vegetation, designed to 
perpetuate the life of man for ever and ever. In the 
meantime, man was placed under law, that his fidelity 
might be tested, in order that he might advance and par- 
take of this immortalizing power. Had this test been 
honored, the world would have continued without a this- 
tle or a thorn, without emptiness, without barrenness, 
without a disappointing misery, without a fleeting, tran- 
sitory enjoyment, without decay, corruption, or vanity. 
None of these things were in it, or on it, when God made 
it. Had this test been honered, we, reader, would have 
been born in the regions of immortality, instead of un- 
der the dominion of death, in a world that is smitten to 
the very center with the all-pervading curse of vanity. 
In that case, we should not have needed a Savior to 
pour out his precious blood for us, but would have been 
immortal, like the angels, by the laws of creation and 
procreation. For it is worthy of notice, that our parents 
were commanded to " multiply and replenish the earth," 



LECTURES ON UNI VERBALISM. 



183 



before the transgression. Had the original order of na- 
ture stood, we should never have been in any other place 
than what we now call heaven. To be in heaven would 
have been as natural to us as to be at all. Blessed be 
God ! we are nevertheless allowed to hope for immortal- 
ity when creation shall be delivered from the bondage 
of corruption for the glorious liberty of the children of 
God ! Our own Messiah, the Leader of the hosts of Je- 
hovah, shall conduct all the faithful to the Paradise of 
God, where the tree of life shall again be seen and en-| 
joyed, blooming with fragrance, and yielding its peren- 
nial fruits of immortality. 

It was in consequence of the transgresssion of our 
royal progenitors, that the whole creation was made sub- 
ject to vanity — that all terrestrial things became vani- 
ties — that " vanity of vanities " is attested by the expe- 
rience of every wise man in every age. Does this need 
proof? Is it not self-evident ? But, of proof, there is an 
infinity. Said God to Adam, after the transgression, 
when about to make creation subject to the bondage of 
corruption : u Cursed is the ground for thy sake ! In 
sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life " (Gen. 
|ii, 17); and it is added immediately, "Thorns also, and 
thistles, shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat 
the herb of the field. 

God's act of cursing the earth is sometimes referred 
':o afterward, as in the family of Lamech at the birth of ; 
Noah : " This same shall comfort us concerning ourj. 
work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which 
the Lord hath cursed Gen. v, 29. Isaiah says, " The 
2URSE hath devoured the earth, and they that dwell there- 
in are desolate" (Isa. xxiv, 6). We admit (we do so 
gladly, for the truth is always consistent with itself), 
that, in every age of the world, there have been special 
or local curses upon individuals and nations : but this 
proves, rather than denies, that there is a general, orig- 



184 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS!*. 



inal, universal, curse inflicted upon the earth for the sake 
of the original transgression; that man, having cor- 
rupted himself, was pent up in a habitation of cor- 
ruption; that, having brought upon his own person 
vanity and dishonor, a vain, empty, barren, desolate, 
habitation should be the house of his transient pilgrim- 
age. 

The whole earth, with its appendages, has been put 
under bondage to corruption. The air, the light, the 
water, the soil, are pervaded by the seeds and principles 
of death and decay ; an infernal stygian virus permeates 
every vein of the physical elements ; the tree of life is 
withdrawn ; the cavern of death is opened ; the whole 
world is a place of skulls ; the devil is the prince of 
aerial power, and nature has been vitiated to the core. 
The whole creation is subject to this bodage of corrup- 
tion ; the planet earth is bound by this fatal tie, though 
she continues to traverse her orbit, and keeps up her di- 
urnal whirl. Being bound to corruption, everything 
that rises from the earth is corrupt also. The earth is 
now our corrupt mother, and all our estate on earth is 
fading, evanescent, and corrupt. Her years are linger- 
ing and tedious. She travails in pain, and groans to be 
delivered. The apostle represents that the throes of 
parturition are upon her, and, we may add, that her de- 
livery is at hand ; for, having sent up from the pit her 
Proototokos, the First-born of creation, her next pang 
will deliver into the adoption of children, and manifest 
all the sons of God. When this is done, or, perhaps, 
simultaneously with it, creation herself shall be deliver- 
ed from the bondage of corruption, in order to the glo- 
rious liberty of the children of God, who, thenceforward, 
shall enjoy it the same as if it and they had never been 
subject to bondage. And then " there shall be no more 
curse ; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be 
in it; and his servants shall serve him; and they shall 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



185 



see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads M 
(Rev. xxii, 3, 4). 

Finally — Creation was made subject to vanity, to the 
curse, non volens, not willingly, not spontaneously, but 
by the arbitration of God, who subjected it because of 
the rebellion of man. By a curse, God altered very es- 
sentially the course of nature. Left to its own original 
impulses and laws imposed in the beginning, it never 
would have produced anything but good, from that time 
forth and for ever. But the head and king of all hav- 
ing rebelled, God decreed that creation itself should so 
far rebel against man, as to be to him, in the main, a la- 
borious, vain, and doleful habitation, as it is at this day. 
By reference to the original (Jiekousa), any one will find 
that it means " not spontaneously," when applied to in- 
animate objects, but "not willingly," when asserted of 
rational beings. So we say, and challenge investigation. 
The passage, then, reads and means as follows : u For 
the creation was made subject to vanity — that is, the 
curse — not spontaneously, or by the operation of its 
laws — but by reason of him who subjected it to bondage 
in consequence of the infidelity of the one who had been 
appointed head of it." Such was creation, and such is 
the meaning of its being made subject to vanity. But 
you shall hear us further. 

IV. Of the deliverance of creation from bondage. 

The translation of Mr. Doddridge is to be preferred, 
and is this : " For the creation was made subject to van- 
ity, not willingly, but by him who subjected it in hope, 
that the creation shall be set free from the bondage of 
corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God." 

That the whole creation is in bondage, and that every 
creature in creation is likewise in bondage, and that the 
bondage is that of corruption and vanity, needs no fur- 
ther proof. Even the most determined unbeliever 
knows that there is something the matter with all crea- 



186 



LECTURES ON UNIVEKSALXSM. 



tion, so far as he can see. The Christian knows what 
the disease is,- how it came, what will be its cure. Crea- 
tion itself shall be delivered from the whole curse ; every 
item of vanity shall be purged from the surface and the 
center ; and there shall be a full and thorough regenera- 
tion of the heavens and earth. The prophets have so 
assured us, and the apostles have added an universal 
univocal testimony. The conception, we confess, is a 
sublime and bold one ; but God will not conceal from 
his people what shall be in the last days. It is his work 
to " make all things new." 

It may be that we are not furnished, in Scripture, with 
a full catalogue of the more immediate means by which 
this great deliverance shall be effected ; but some of them 
are manifest, and common-place in religion. 

In the first place, the devil shall be bound or expelled 
entirely from our planet, so as never to usurp its terri- 
tories again. He shall be an eternal exile from a place 
he had abused so much and so long — the scene of his 
innumerable lies and murders. His banishment will 
leave mankind in a better condition. His throne in the 
air being vacated, the earth and her inhabitants will be- 
gin to return toward their original position; but the 
mere exile of the devil will never wholly restore the 
breach that had been made among the works of God. 
' In the next place, then, God will once more take the 
entire planet into his own plastic hands ; melt and run 
it, so to speak, into another mold ; give it a better and 
more glorious appearance : give it a translucent, elastic, 
and life-inspiring atmosphere, without one principle of 
death in it ; and, having fully purged it of all unprofitable 
matter by the action of one universal and all-pervading 
fire, he will over-arch it with new heavens, decked with 
ten thousand times ten thousand rich and brilliant glo- 
ries, the everlasting proofs of his love and philanthropy. 

It is not too much to look for so great a physical 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



187 



change, as some moping infidels have imagined, or as 
some half-believers have supposed. Geology has taught 
us that some great physical changes have already been 
completed in land and sea. What mean those piles of 
limestone in your quarries 1 Are they not made of the 
shells of fishes'? And what mean those thousands of sea- 
shells upon your hills and mountains ? Were they not 
put there by an up-heaving of the bottom of the ocean ? 
Behold the new rivers of this American continent : did 
these exist from the foundation of the world ? I tell you, 
nay ; they were formed by the subsiding of the waters of 
a general deluge. One earth has already perished by 
water ; the one we now inhabit is not the one which was 
put under the first man — it was given to Noah and his 
sons. Is it unreasonable, then, that we. should look for 
still another, for a " new earth " in respect to this, as this 
was new in respect to that % Who shall set bounds to 
the operations of Jehovah, by saying that the heavens 
and the earth which are now, shall not be regenerated 
by fire ? What scoffer, who has any claim to the title of 
a scholar, will venture to say, " Where is the promise of 
the coming of the Lord, for since the patriarchs fell 
asleep, all things continue as they were from the begin- 
ning of creation? 5 ' Every one who understands the first 
principles of science, knows that all things have not con- 
tinued as God made them at the beginning ; that great 
physical and moral changes have occurred, and that, 
from analogy, we may conclude, that as great, or great- 
er, ones may occur hereafter. And now we are intro- 
duced to a scripture or two by which this great physical 
change is indicated. 

Having treated of one world which had perished by a 
flood, Peter says : " But the heavens and the earth which 
are now, by the same Word are kept in store, reserved 
unto fire 3 against the day of judgment and perdition of 
ungodly men. * * The day of the Lord will come a? 



183 LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 

a thief in the night ; in which the heavens shall pass 
away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt 
with fervent heat ; the earth also, and the works that are 
therein, shall be burned up !" (2 Pet. iii). And he says, 
cc Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new 
heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous- 
ness." By such means will the Supreme Lord of heav- 
en and earth regenerate our whole earth, and deliver it 
from the bondage of corruption. In relation to this 
great event, God says, " Behold, I make all things new !" 
John, in a vision, was permitted to see the new earth 
and heaven, as he had before been allowed to see the 
Son of Man coming in his kingdom : "And I saw," says 
he, " a new heaven and a new earth : for the first heaven 
and the first earth were passed away ; and there was no 
more sea; 53 Rev. xxi, 1. 

Such is the state of things indicated in the eighth of 
Romans. Paul takes this way of treating of the new 
earth. Let us now introduce the whole passage : "And 
if children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint heirs with 
Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be 
also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings 
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with 
the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the ear- 
nest expectation of the creation waiteth for the mani- 
festation of the sons of God. For the creation was made 
subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him 
^who subjected it in ho]3e, that the creation itself also 
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into 
the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we 
know that the whole creation groaneth and tra^aileth in 
pain together until now; and not only so, but ourselves 
also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we our 
selves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption, 
the redemption of our body." If it be necessary, in or- 
der to save and immortalize man, to make him pure, it 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



189 



is no less necessary to furnish him with a habitation cor- 
responding, in purity and honor, to his exalted nature. 
And this is the glorious fact which our apostle here so 
magnificently describes. 

V. The design of the deliverance of creation. 

Paul says, that " creation itself shall be delivered from 
the bondage of corruption and thus far he is fairly 
translated, and made to speak intelligibly : but the whole 
of this passage has been so miserably translated, that 
few persons have been able to understand it. True 
we can take the common version and ascertain what 
must have been the intention of the writer, especially if 
we call to our aid other passages : but still, when the 
same word, and that the leading word in the passage, is 
sometimes rendered creature, and sometimes creation, and 
when another important word or two is made to have a 
meaning, however literal, that obscures the sense, we have 
a right to complain and give our reasons. 

Now it is not at all likely that the apostle would men- 
tion the great and glorious fact, that creation should be 
delivered from the bondage of corruption, without telling 
the object for which it should be liberated. If this ob- 
ject be disclosed by our translators, it is done so obscurely 
as to be almost imperceptible. Let us more closely ex- 
amine the place. " Creation itself shall be delivered from 
the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the 
children of God." Our English word into, in this place, 
does not fully express the idea intended ; for it would 
seem that creation is to be delivered for its own sake, or 
for the enjoyment of liberty which belongs to others. 

But this is evidently not the meaning of the apostle. 

The deliverance of creation is for another object clear- 
ly expressed in the original, and when we mention it, the 
evidence will be so clear, that all will admit it. Once 
more, then, we put down the passage with the word in 
question properly translated — That creation itself shall 



190 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!. 



be delivered from the bondage of corruption, for the glo- 
rious liberty of the children of God." 

Creation is to be delivered for the children of God, 
rather than into their liberty. To deliver creation into 
the liberty of God's children, would seem to intimate, 
that those children had anteceded creation in the pos- 
session of that liberty, which does not comport with their 
groaning and waiting for their adoption. Speaking of 
the new heavens and earth, Peter, having used other 
words, was better understood by our translators, and 
tells plainly the design of this removal of the bondage. 
" We look for new heavens," says he " and a new earth, 
wherein dwelleth righteousness," that is, wherein the 
just shall dwell. These new habitations of glory will 
be fitted up for the righteous of all ages and nations ; 
they shall dwell there as on their own inalienable do- 
mains, and luxuriate amid the glories and joys of per- 
fect sanctity and perfect peace. It will be the hab- 
itation, also, of a perfect eternal liberty : the iron and 
beastly hoof of oppression, shall never tread those 
fields of living green ; the despot cannot there pave 
his way to a throne with the bones of his fellows: 
" the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of 
the kingdom under the whole heavens, shall be given to 
the people of the saints of the most high." For their 
perfect liberty the earth itself shall be made anew, and 
heaven shall put on overcanopying glory, to which our 
dim eyes, in this age, are altogether unequal. What a 
thought is this ! How like God the conception, and how 
like him its sure and unfailing accomplishment ! 

But the reader will expect us to make the criticism 
good, upon which we found the above structure ; and we 
•hall serve him with the greatest pleasure. Let us, then, 
•elect some four principal passages for the sake of illus- 
tration. 

1, Jesus says at his table : " For this is my blood of the 



P 



LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS*!, 



191 



new testament, which is shed for many, for the remissiaa 
of sins." Matt, xxvi, 28. (Eis aphesin hamartioon.) 

2. " John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the 
baptism of repentance for the remission of sins ;" Mark 

i. 4 (Eis aphesin hamartioon). 

3. 8 And he came into all the country about the Jor- 
dan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remis- 
sion of sins;" Luke iii. 3 (Eis aphesin hamartioon). 

4. " Repent, and be baptized every one of you, in the 
name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins ;" Acts 

ii. 38 (Eis aphesin hamartioon). 

Now we all know, that the object in the shedding of 
the blood of Christ, was the remission of sins : He did 
not die because the sins of mankind had been pardoned 
before. We know in like manner, that John did not bap- 
tize the people because they had obtained remission be- 
fore they came to his baptism ; and we know, finally, the 
apostles at Pentecost and afterward, preached baptism 
and baptized the taught, for or in order to the remission 
of sins. In all these instances, the design of the actions 
commanded or described, is indicated by the word for, 
in the Greek Eis. A thousand similar instances might 
be produced at pleasure, but these will suffice. We need 
not even this length of argument with such as keep the 
oracles correctly. We come to the place in question. 

" That creation itself shall be delivered from the bon- 
dage of corruption (eis teen eleutherian tees doxees teen 
teknoon tou theou) for, or in order to, the glorious liberty 
of the children of God." What mean all the promises 
of G-od in reference to the purification of the sanctuary ; 
in reference to the regeneration of the earth ; in refer- 
ence to the immortality of his people; if a glorious 
place is not to be garnished for their reception % That 
glorious place is to be the new earth and heavens. J esus 
said to his followers, " I go to prepare a place for you, I 
will come again and receive you unto myself, that where 



192 LECTURES ON UNIVERSALIS!*. 

I am, there ye may be also" (John xiv, 2, 3). Does thei 
reader suppose that the people of God are to be taken 
from the earth and located somewhere " beyond the sun," 
a foreign part of the universe, and not have their own 
home prepared and fitted up for them after the style of 
God the Builder'? I tell you, that when God shall de- 
liver the earth from the servitude of corruption, it will 
be pretty enough and good enough for the most tasty of 
the sons and daughters of men. It will be delivered for 
their glorious liberty, or that they may enjoy upon it all 
the fullness of God. Such are our views of this passage. 

We have expressed them at some length ; and now we 
will say, that we have no doubt of their correctness. 

Any other view is impeded by a congeries of obstruc- 
tions insurmountable. We submit them with confidence, 
for the utter overthrow of Universalism, and the edifica- 
tion of all who take pleasure in understanding the divine 
communications. 



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